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THE 



PROVINCE OF EXPRESSION 



A SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 



UNDERLYING ADEQUATE METHODS OF DEVELOPING 



DRAMATIC AND ORATORIO DELIVERY 



23 6 

Soft 






S. S. CURRY, Ph. D. 

Dean, School of Expression ; Instructor of Elocution, Harvard College ; Act- 
ing Davis Professor of Elocution, Newton Theol. Inst. ; formerly 
Snow Professor of Oratory, Boston University, etc. 



" What hand and brain went ever paired? 
What heart alike conceived and dared ? 
What act proved all its thought had been ? 
What will but felt the fleshy screen? " 

— Browning. 



Q0o*fon 

SCHOOL OF EXPRESSION 

FREEMAN PLACE, BEACON ST. 
I 89I 



cOPYRiQ/y^. 



J/6WW 1 




v^ 






COYPRIGHT, 1 891 

BY 

S. S. Curry 
All Rights Reserved 



to <$. (St. (J>. 

Atnice, alter ipse. 

The waves still murmur to the listening shore, 
A star comes forth to meet the rising moon, 
Again the breezes dance with leafy June ; 

But one, the long-loved comer, comes no more. 

Oh ! dost thou see a boatman's single oar 

That toils alone 'mong rocks to find the way ? 
Oh ! from those peaceful shores of trustful day 

Return, once more a faltering heart restore ! 

A sheet toil-worn and blotted here is spread 
For thee its lines more full and clear to trace ; 

Alas ! I cannot hear thy kindly tread, 
And all is dark, I cannot see thy face. 

So to the winds the scribbled lines I throw, 

To roam, and find a heart its word shall know. 



AIMS AND RELATIONS. , 

" For us and for our Tragedy, 
Here stooping to your clemency, 
We beg your hearing patiently." 

During the last twelve or fifteen years, as I have met dif- 
ferent classes in various institutions, I have endeavored at the 
very beginning of each course to give a general conception of 
the purpose and nature of the work to be undertaken. As the 
students have come together, strange to each other, strange to 
their teacher, and unacquainted with the subject, it seemed 
best thus to introduce them to the work. It was found nec- 
essary to do this also because many had absolutely false ideas 
of the department, and others such vague notions as to furnish 
no foundation for a beginning. Before this method was 
adopted, the simplest exercises would fail to accomplish any 
satisfactory results through mere misconception, not so much 
of the specific exercises, as of the general nature and aim of 
all work for the development of expression. Out of such 
efforts this book has grown. Of course it is not meant that all 
the principles here discussed were considered before students 
began to work. Only about one half the first hour could be 
devoted to such a definition, but, though only a few ideas 
could be awakened, it was the endeavor to state the funda- 
mental elements, and to suggest lines of thinking, so that in 
the future practice and study the students would be led nat- 
urally into a comprehensive grasp of the nature and aim of 
such work and its relations to other departments of education. 

From the loose notes and jottings-down of the various 
phases of the problem, I conceived, many years ago, the idea 
of writing a small pamphlet as a general definition of the work, 



vi Aims and Relations. 

that not only misconceptions might be removed from such 
classes, but also from the minds of all students, and even from 
many who were thoroughly posted in reference to other depart- 
ments of education. It was written, but never published, 
because it seemed so inadequate to meet the great need. It 
continued to grow, and although it has been retained more 
than the nine years prescribed by Horace, it is still very inad- 
equate to accomplish the purpose for which it was conceived. 
There are, however, some things to be considered. Little has 
ever been said upon this general subject. Books upon elocu- 
tion exist by the score, but where can be found a work which 
exactly defines its province, which shows distinctly its rela- 
tions to universal education and to universal art ? So that the 
work is practically an endeavor in a new field. 

Many of the principles can only be seen in their complete- 
ness after a more definite discussion of each particular phase 
of the problem, so that many of the points discussed would be 
far clearer and more in place at the close of a complete unfold- 
ment of the methods for the development of each specific 
phase of expression. For example, among the most funda- 
mental ideas of the work is the necessity of specific study of 
mental action in relation to expression, or the co-ordination of 
the conscious and the unconscious; but these can only be fully 
realized after a discussion of vocal expression. 

Again, the proof that expression can only be improved by 
training can only be seen after a thorough discussion of the 
principles in accordance with which the voice and body can be 
developed so as to become more plastic and more adequate 
agents in every respect for the manifestation of the mind. 
And yet, as this work is the introduction to a series of works 
which are meant to unfold the fundamental principles of more 
natural and adequate methods for the development of all 
forms of delivery, it has been thought best to endeavor to give 
a comprehensive general conception of the whole field, that 
each specific part may be made clearer and more definite, and 
not be misconceived from lack of a true idea of the whole, or 
the relation of the parts to each other. 



Aims and Relations. vii 

It may make the matter clearer to outline the whole under- 
taking. This, possibly, ought to be concealed, as it may seem 
too great for any hard-working teacher to accomplish. But if 
thi-s is so, it is still well, possibly, to record the intention, that 
the place which this work is meant to fill in relation to the 
whole may be seen by the reader. The materials for all the 
other works are being gathered in exactly the same way as 
they have been gathered for this, and in fact, some of the 
others could have been produced more adequately than the 
present work, because they are more intimately connected with 
the practical work of teaching. 

The whole series of works, as conceived and planned, 
include the following : 

I. The Province of Expression. 
II. Principles of Training. 

III. Principles of Vocal Training. 

IV. Principles of Vocal Expression. 
V. History of Elocution. 

VI. General Laws of Expression and Principles of 
Art. 
VII. Stammering and Impediments of Speech. 
VIII. Bible Reading and Liturgical Expression. 
IX. Methods of Teaching Expression. 
X. Practical Text-Books and Manuals for the use 
of Teachers and of Classes. 
It can be seen that the department of pantomime is here 
omitted. The reason for this is that another has long been 
working upon this department and it is but just that it should 
be left to him to complete. This does not imply, however, 
that there is any agreement between us that one should take 
one department and the other another, or that our opinions 
are the same, for they are not ; it is my own feeling of honor, 
and after the publication of his work another work will be pub- 
lished showing the peculiar views held by me in regard to that 
special department, and to show its connection and con- 
sistency with the principles unfolded in the investigation of 
other departments. 



viii Aims and Relations. 

It seems of vital moment that at the present hour there 
should be an adequate understanding of the great problem of 
expression. Every science is making advancement. The 
whole problem- of education is being discussed, and is it possi- 
ble that this most vital and most practical relationship between 
conception and manifestation should be entirely ignored ? 

In manual training, in physical training, and indeed, in every 
phase of education there are wonderful advances, but is it con- 
ceivable that our public school teachers should have instruction 
in so many branches, and yet in relation to the voice that not 
one word of instruction should be given ? The benevolent 
ladies of Boston who have given teachers such opportuni- 
ties for studying these various subjects, have done a great ser- 
vice to the cause of education, but it is only a beginning. All 
over our country our teachers are suffering from sore throats, 
and pupils, on account of a mismanagement of the voice of 
teachers, and a failure to understand the problem of expres- 
sion, are having their voices made hard, their bodies made 
awkward, and are being given power to conceive ideas but 
no power to manifest these ideas to their fellow-men. 

A free people must not only be an educated people. Free- 
dom and oratory have ever gone hand in hand. The vital 
interests of our nation and of religion have ever been made 
dependent upon powers of expression, and upon this power 
must depend the growth of individual character. 

It is to aid in this cause that this book has been written — 
to call attention to the subject, to endeavor to show its con- 
nection with modern thought, art and education, and to strive 
to give leaders in education jk clearer conception of its 
possibilities. 

It is also sent forth as an endeavor to help, in a small meas- 
ure, directly or indirectly, the few who are laboring hard to 
make their work an art and not a trade, and are struggling 
under widespread misconception of the nature of their work, 
even on the part of college presidents and principals of 
schools; and yet who, despite all, are struggling toward an 
ideal, striving ever to rise to a higher plane and a broader view. 



Aims and Relations. ix 

The book is issued with the same motive that the School of 
Expression was founded. Without the School of Expression 
these methods could not have been applied and tested, as no 
other institution offered opportunities for the evolution and 
perfection of such advanced views in all the different phases. 
The greatest debt is therefore due to the earnest students who 
have attended that school, who have furnished the enthusi- 
asm, the perseverance, and patient application that has ren- 
dered this series of books possible; and also to the public- 
spirited citizens upon its committees who have encouraged the 
struggles of the humble school to higher attainments and 
nobler ideas. 

While the author has studied with over forty different 
teachers in different parts of the world, except in general sug- 
gestions, he is not conscious of having borrowed anything 
directly for the work without giving credit, so that no other 
must be held responsible for the views adopted. 

No one can be more alive to the imperfect and inadequate 
presentation of the- subjects discussed in this work than the 
writer himself. When it is remembered that from five to eight 
hours a day, six days in a week, have been devoted to teach- 
ing, it can be seen how little leisure and strength are left to 
discuss subjects needing such careful investigation. 

This statement, however, can be taken either as an apology 
or as a claim. As an apology for the imperfect form in which 
the ideas are conveyed; or on the other hand, as a proof that 
it is no mere study-room theorizing, but that every idea has 
Ibeen born in the actual work of teaching. The illustrations 
are such as have often been used in answering questions 
asked by earnest and inquiring students. So that if anyone 
should think that on account of this lack of time for prepa- 
ration and more adequate illustration, the ideas, principles 
and methods in every department, not only in this particular 
book, but in all the others, have not been maturely considered, 
these very facts abundantly disprove it. Everything has 
been conceived and born from actual experience, and every 
method has been tested with every variety of students as 



x Aims and Relations. 

to age and nationality, habit, normal and abnormal, general 
education and professional aim. 

Mr. Pater has said that all art is the removal of rubbish. 
The reader will no doubt wish that there had been a greater 
application of this principle to the present work. For his- 
comfort, however, it may be said that much has been written 
which has not been printed. It also may be said in excuse 
that the author has hoped to get a year of advanced and 
additional study separate from teaching in order to more care- 
fully and accurately arrange the ideas and give finish to the 
book, but this opportunity has never come and will doubtless 
fail to come in the future. Hence, on account of the urgent 
need, it is sent forth with all its imperfections on its head, 
in the hope that "the incomplete," if not "more than complet- 
ness," yet may, in some sense, " match the immense." 

School of Expression, 

Freeman Pl., Beacon St., Boston. 

June 19th, 1891. 



SOME OF THE GENERAL IDEAS. 

" Art was given for that ; 
God uses us to help each other so, 
Lending our minds out." 

— Browning. 

I. The Problem. 

I. The Nature of Expression is found from a study of all its phases 
to be a process of revelation. Expression implies mystic activity causing 
action manifest to the senses. The apprehending mind does not attend to 
words, forms or motions for their own sake, but taking these as mere signs 
constructs the thing signified. 

II. Misconceptions of Expression arise chiefly from confusing it 
with appearance. Expression is the result not of physical but of psychic 
action at the moment of utterance. The physical actions are directly 
caused by mental action. Thinking before an audience to awaken thought 
in others is not the same as thinking alone, but it is not primarily a phys- 
ical act. 

• III. There are three Kinds of Expression, one belonging both to the 
eye and ear, one to the ear alone and one to the eye alone. Each of these 
reveals a different phase of experience — experience which can only be ade- 
quately revealed by its own inherited language. Their essential nature is 
complementary to each other; and they are only in perfection when 
properly united. 

IV. Expression and Personality are intimately related. Though 
unconsciously and indirectly, the peculiar character of the man affects his 
modes of utterance. As all forms of art unconsciously reveal the charac- 
teristics of the artist, so delivery being more intimately related to the man 
is more essentially revelatory than any form of art. Hence development 
of expression must be more or less dependent on the development of the 
experience and soul of the man. 

V. The Emotion in Expression, according to a majority of the best 
masters of expression, is genuine. One-sided views making expression 
entirely a product of intellect, or of will, or of emotion, completely violate 
its character. As the faculties of the soul are in unity, so expression 
demands their united co-operation and complementary action. 



xii General Ideas. 

VI. It is important to study Expression in Art because all the arts 
are one, and the study of expression in any one of them will throw light on 
that of another. The elements of expression are found to be representa- 
tion and manifestation ; one of these elements being more intellectual, the 
other more emotional ; one more dramatic, the other more lyric ; one more 
reproductive, the other more representative; one more objective, the other 
more subjective. Every work of art must have both of these elements, 
which are borrowed from the expressions of the human body. 

VII. Studying Expression as a Form of Art we find that it is 
usually considered to be a representative art. But this is an error, as it is 
essentially subjective and manifestive, and while both elements must ever 
be present the essential greatness of all lyric and dramatic expression con- 
sists in the transcendence of the manifestive over the representative 
elements. 

VIII. Comparing Expression and History we find that there has 
been ever a gradual progress from objective imitation to a greater degree 
of manifestation. This is found to be especially true in prose composi- 
tion, and must be true in delivery. Hence, as the character of expression 
has greatly changed, methods for its development must also change, and 
the great advance in science, the greater understanding of the human body 
in relation to the human being, and the greater advance in art — especially 
in music — furnish a lesson as to the reforms in methods of developing his- 
trionic and oratoric expression. 

II. Search for Method. 

IX. Turning to the Fundamental Processes of Nature for light as 
to general principles regarding a method, we find that nature always 
expresses from within out. She begins from a center for the unfoldment of 
forces at this center which unfold in all directions according to the open- 
ness of the channel. This is a fundamental characteristic of naturalness. 
Nature everywhere shows freedom and unity. 

X. Is Artistic Spontaneity the same as animal spontaneity? Man 
has an element of conscious volition not common with the animal. 
Spontaneity refers to the whole nature acting, so spontaneity with man 
means co-operation and co-ordination of all the faculties. Essentially it 
shows an union of the conscious with the unconscious, the voluntary with 
the involuntary elements. The great danger in developing expression is 
that deliberation and conscious obedience to rule should usurp the place of 
spontaneous impulses. The deliberative and conscious action of the man 
is rather for regulation and direction than for complete domination. The 
union of spontaneous to deliberative actions without destroying the fun- 
damental nature of the former is the highest characteristic of art. The 
development of expression must more than all other forms of art require 



General Ideas. xiii 

the development of spontaneity and a mystic co-ordination of it with 
deliberation. 

XI. The Development of Expression can be accomplished by devel- 
oping the cause or psychic action, by securing control of the voice and 
body as a means, and by securing such a technical skill in the use and 
application of these as will effectually accomplish the result. The only 
way to improve expression is by affecting the causes and the means, as 
expression is an effect. 

XII. As Mental Action is the cause, it must first be developed. 
Mental action is often considered as having nothing to do with expression, 
but all faults of voice, all faults of delivery, can be traced directly or indi- 
rectly to wrong action of the mind. One faculty especially to be trained is 
the imagination. This stimulates emotion. The proper succession of the 
mind in thinking must also be trained and a harmonious balance secured of 
thought and emotion. 

XIII. To fulfill the requirements of the problem special attention is 
needed to the subject of Training. Training is a stimulation of nature's 
processes. The two great processes in nature are, progression and retro- 
gression. Training can correct evil habit and can develop along the line 
of nature's intention. It is a conscious and deliberative evolution. 

XIV. Every art has its special Technical Training, so in expres- 
sion there are right and wrong ways to accomplish results. Special skill 
has to be acquired in education for expression. 

XV. The great importance of the development of expression is depen- 
dent upon Criticism. Criticism is a comparison of the actual with an 
inherent ideal. All literature is a "criticism of life". Criticism in expres- 
sion is absolutely necessary. The possibilities, mistakes and failures must 
be shown to the student, and he must be made to realize his possibilities. 
The application of remedies for abnormal action and the right stimulus to 
restore and develop is dependent upon critical insight. The greatest dan- 
ger is flattery and the greatest difficulty is to inspire with the true artistic 
spirit of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. 

III. Tradition. 

XVI. Every method of investigation must recognize an historical ele- 
ment. There is a use as well as an abuse of history. Slavish following of 
tradition is the bane of all elocution and even art ; but having investigated 
nature and the principles of general art, comparison with some of the lead- 
ing traditions is very important. 

XVII. Imitation is the earliest method and has been almost universally 
practised. The arguments for this school are that expression is essen- 



xiv General Ideas. 

tially an imitative thing, that it requires example, and that this is the only 
way of reaching the great subtleties and difficulties of the problem, which 
can not be analyzed. The objections to it are: that men are naturally dif- 
l ferent from each other as to pitch of voice, nature of voice, temperament 
and mode of action. 

XVIII. The universal sense of the inadequacy of imitation led to the 
Mechanical School. Speech has been analyzed and its peculiar charac- 
teristics found to be stresses and inflections, and rules have been pre- 
scribed for the proper use of these as signs of emotion. The arguments 
against the school are : that it has overlooked the most subtle and many of 
the most essential elements of vocal expression, and has especially ignored 
the spontaneous and tried to make all deliberative and obedient to rule. 
'The whole tendency has been to turn expression into a mechanical art. 

XIX. The reaction against the mechanical gave rise to the Impulsive. 
Since the mechanical method .worked to get the natural signs of emotion, 
some said, then if emotion produces these things why not try to get the 
emotion rather than the signs, and entirely forget the signs. The result 
was almost a complete lack of attention to delivery. The arguments 
against the school are : that man is abnormal, a creature of bad habit, and 
must be trained and made normal, must know the right from wrong way of 
expression. He needs also to acquire a gamut of passions and a gamut of 
languages for their manifestation, otherwise he will drift. Many of the 
ablest speakers have but one emotion, and hence a monotonous form of 
expression. That all phases of human nature appear to need special train- 
ing. Man is a creature of education and especially in any form of art is 
education more necessary. A price has to be paid for any skill or great- 
ness in art. 

XX. Dissatisfaction with all current methods has led to the importation 
of a Speculative one, which in its own country had been completely 
discarded. The so-called Delsarte system is founded upon Swedenborg's 
Correspondences. Everything is essentially a trinity, beginning with God 
and coming through all nature and the life of man. All his powers 
are arranged in trinities and all his agents of manifestation and all their 
actions. It is contended that this gives a philosophic basis for work in 
expression. The best things in the original method, such as the element of 
training, have been entirely ignored for the speculative and artificial divi- 
sion of man's mind and body and their languages. 

XXI. In all these methods there can be traced many truths ; but every- 
where there can be seen a recognized need for Advance. There must be 
a more careful study of science, the laws of life and development, study of 
the underlying principles of all art, since all the arts if not derived from 
expression, at least borrow terms from it. Art is more and more regarded 



General Ideas. xv 

as an intervention of personality. Its underlying principles must be related 
to the art which shows itself through the primary languages. There must 
also be advance in studying the real function of expression as an art. 

IV. Application. 

XXII. The importance of expression is seen in its Function in Edu- 
cation ; it is not merely professional, it belongs to all education. It 
shows the practical side of education, as education has two sides, the recep- 
tion of truth and the manifestation of truth. These two processes are 
mutually necessary for the development of character, the aim of education. 
A knowledge of expression enables a teacher to secure harmony, enables a 
teacher to test assimilation and originality. Reforms in education have all 
tended to practical results which are shown in expression. 

XXIII. The Function of a Teacher shows the need of special train- 
ing on account of the neglect of the work, and its great difficulties, Tradi- 
tions need to be fostered and the work encouraged and emphasized till it 
occupies its proper place. 

XXIV. A proper elevation of expression is important on account of its 
relation to Special Arts. Oratory and public speaking must be culti- 
vated by all free peoples. "Agitation means liberty." Dramatic art in 
some form will always exist. When neglected it becomes a curse, but when 
elevated and arraigned by thorough dramatic criticism and when it is used 
for the cultivation of taste, it is a great means for the development of the 
human being. A newer and later phase, if not a more important one, 
which is more subjective and that meets the higher artistic requirements of 
the age, is the rendering of the Monologue and Public Reading. 



$0e (profifem 



1 . . . . Art remains the one way possible 
Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine, at least. 
How look a brother in the face and say 
'Thy right is wrong, eyes hast thou yet art blind, 
Thine ears are stuffed and stopped despite their length, 
And, oh, the foolishness thou countest faith !'.... 
The shrug, the disappointed eyes of him 
Are not so bad to bear — but here's the plague, 
That all this trouble comes of telling truth, 

Which truth, by when it reaches him, looks false 

But Art — wherein man nowise speaks to men, 
Only to mankind — Art may tell a truth 
Obliquely, do the thing shall breed the thought 
Nor wrong the thought, missing the mediate word." 

— Brownim 



I. 

NATURE OF EXPRESSION. 

" Inalienable, the arch-prerogative 
Which turns thought, act — conceives, expresses, too." 

— Browning. 

Before we can understand a part of a plant, the 
entire organism must be brought before the mind. Had 
we never seen anything belonging to an elm except 
a fragment of a limb, it would hardly be possible for 
us to conceive the grace and beauty, or even form an 
outline, of that beautiful tree ; for before we can under- 
stand a part of an object, we must have a conception 
of the whole. The mind can proceed from the whole 
organic structure to its parts in a perfectly natural 
order of conception, but it requires the most penetrating 
intelligence, with many years of thorough training, to 
conceive a fish belonging to an extinct species, from one 
of its bones. 

Hence, as a wise traveler, before he visits a foreign 
land, feels it necessary to consult those who have 
gone before him, and to seek every means of becoming 
acquainted with the places he expects to visit, that he 
may carefully lay out his course, in order not to overlook 
places and objects of the greatest interest; so it is 
necessary in undertaking any study to understand as 
thoroughly as possible its essential nature, and its gen- 
eral bearings, so as to secure an adequate conception of 
the extent and limits of the field of investigation. 

To define accurately any science or to indicate the 
exact ground to be covered by any form of investigation, 



20 The Problem. 

is a most fundamental requisite to progress. Till this is 
done all search will be aimless, all results chaotic. 

Cicero's statement that everything must proceed from 
a definition has been taken in the fullest and most 
literal sense regarding all scientific investigations ; but, 
unfortunately, the principle has not always been obeyed 
in investigations regarding any department of art. The 
best art writers are so afraid of having an artificial 
system, so anxious to consider art in direct harmony 
with nature, so desirous to be like art herself, sugges- 
tive, that they proceed from almost any point of view. 
Hence, many works upon art are simply called " talks" 
or " conversations." 

But if we are to have, clear ideas and adequate concep- 
tions, a definition is just as necessary in our endeavors to 
investigate any field of art as any department of science. 
This is especially true when the purpose of the investi- 
gation is to find the fundamental elements of a specific 
phase of art, the cause, means and instruments employed, 
in order to establish such methods of instruction as will 
be most helpful to its advancement. For art always pre- 
supposes science, and in such investigations, study must 
not only be devoted to the art itself, but to the scientific 
aspects of the department of nature upon which the art 
is founded. 

Besides, in art, it is not a mere definition that is 
needed, not a mere statement of limitations, but more 
than this, it is a presentation of the ideal, a statement of 
the province, the subject matter, the means of manifesta- 
tion, the possibilities and the end the art especially aims 
to accomplish. Every man feels the importance of an 
ideal in life, and we all respond in a measure to Brown- 
ing when he says that the ideal of the worst man in the 
world is higher than the actual attainment of the best 



Nature of Expression. 21 

man in the world. No man in life ever grows greater or 
advances farther than his ideal. Certainly the same prin- 
ciple holds true in art, which is the image of all human 
life and activity. An artistic ideal may gradually extend 
and improve, but it is always ahead of actual attainment. 
No matter what a man's work may be, if his ideal concep- 
tion of it is low, soon or late everything relating to it will 
be degraded. This is especially true in those forms of 
art where there is a continual tendency to lower the 
ideal. Here especially "a man's reach must exceed his 
grasp." Even vast knowledge and perfect technical skill 
cannot compensate for the lack of a high ideal. 

Especially, however, in subjects where numerous mis- 
conceptions are scattered abroad is a statement of the 
fundamental elements of the art important ; because such 
a definition is the best means of correcting false ideas and 
bringing thoughtful minds back to a more thorough and 
definite study of the facts. Thus we find special need 
for such a method when we come to the study of the 
nature and relationship of all the living languages of man, 
with reference to thei^harmonious development and artis- 
tic employment. Here, more than anywhere else, do we 
find a vast number of loose expressions, incorrect ideas 
and inadequate opinions. 

Writers of every age have recognized the importance 
of all subjects relating to delivery whether oratoric or 
dramatic, but, in relation to no subject of education are 
there such diverse views regarding proper methods of 
development. Articles and books are to. be found upon 
the subject without end, but most of these hardly get 
beyond the discussion of the general importance of deliv- 
ery ; and in none of them do we find the real problem dis- 
cussed, or any adequate outline of principles underlying 
proper methods for the education of the orator. The 



22 TJic Problem. 

establishment and endowment of a school of oratory has 
•been the subject of discussion since the time of Protag- 
oras, but is the problem yet solved, or have adequate 
methods been unfolded ? We have had during the last 
few years in England and America many articles upon 
the importance of establishing a school of acting, but 
where can we find any discussion of the methods that, 
should be adopted, or any indication of the real work that 
needs to be done in such a school ? All that writers 
seem to think necessary is that there should be a school 
established and endowed, forgetting that a school with 
wrong methods would not only do no good, but would do 
an infinite amount of harm. 

It is, therefore, with much hesitation that the work is 
undertaken of making a few suggestions regarding the 
solution of such a problem; for in coming to a subject as 
broad and general as this, great care and thorough study 
are required. A definition must not be a mere opinion, 
but must be the result of observation and directly 
founded upon facts. An adequate method for the accom- 
plishment of such an important work as the development 
of human delivery must not be a result of mere theory, 
but of careful observation and long-continued experience. 
In all scientific investigation, even the necessary hypothe- 
sis must be founded upon facts. A working hypothesis 
in science must be the best apparent explanation of all 
facts regarding the subject as far as known, and must be 
proved or disproved by a careful comparison with addi- 
tional facts. 

All art tends to be conventional and traditional, so that 
the investigation of any subject connected with it has 
special difficulties. Reforms of methods in art require 
generations for their accomplishment ; for almost all men 
confound what is customary and conventional with what is 



Nature of Expression. 23 

natural, and too often substitute opinion for observation. 
If in our study of the facts of nature we may seem at 
first to arrive at conclusions opposed to many traditions, 
let it be remembered that all scientific investigation, 
before there can be any progress, must break away from 
mere traditional opinion and be directly concerned with 
nature herself. Opinions, however old, are not necessa- 
rily facts. If what is old is true, then it will not be 
harmed, but strengthened and confirmed by a fresh and 
rigid comparison with the phenomena of nature. Besides, 
opinions which are thoroughly sound, and originally dis- 
covered from careful observation of nature, become nar- 
row, superficial and one-sided when there is not a constant 
comparison with nature. In art, more possibly than any- 
where else, do we find that "the letter killeth but the 
spirit giveth life." Hence we can see a great necessity 
for renewed study of the nature of human expression. 

So universal are the misconceptions and so various are 
the opinions regarding the whole work of dramatic and 
oratoric delivery, that we must begin with the subject at 
the foundation, and must come to it as children, assuming 
absolute ignorance, lest we lose sight of some of the most 
important elements of the subject, and so take for granted 
that which will lead us fundamentally astray at the very 
beginning of our work. 

For of all phases of education, this is the most difficult ; 
nowhere is there so great danger of superficiality, conven- 
tionality and one-sidedness of every kind. There are 
many reasons for this. Expression is subjective as well 
as objective, and requires no mere study of appearance or 
even of the philosophy and anatomy of the body, but a\ / 

) A 



clos e scrutiny of ^gv erything most^jnjtimately related to 
the soul and the soul's act ivities. We do not come to 
the ^tuo T y*of a leaf or plant or stone, but something con 



24 The Problem. 

nected with fhe fundamental elements of our being. 
And this is not all. We come to study not only thought, 
but those mental actions that are involuntary and uncon- 
scious. We come to the investigation of the most 
complex and difficult of problems — the subjective in the 
objective. So that very soon every student of delivery 
feels like joining in the prayer of Burns — 

" O wad some power the gif tie gie us, 
To see oursels as ithers see us ! 
It wad frae monie a blunder free us, 
And foolish notion." 

What is meant by expression ? If we study a man 
standing face to face with his fellow-man, wrought up to 
the highest pitch of excitement, endeavoring to reveal his 
thoughts and feelings, wq find there are many means 
which he simultaneously employs in making himself 
understood. So that the term expression is here em- 
ployed to cover all the living languages of man, natural or 
artificial, which he uses in speaking face to face with his 
fellow-man. Sometimes it is used as merely covering the 
natural languages of motions, actions and tones. Here it 
is used in a slightly wider sense than this, as including 
the living language of speech as well as of motions and 
voice. 

The most fundamental element of expression is the 
idea of revelation of man's psychic nature through his 
physical organism. What our fellow-being thinks, feels 
or is, is shown us by what we see of the action of his 
body or what is heard from his voice. We see that 
expression is not of the body but through the body ; we 
feel that there is something mystic and hidden, unseen 
and unheard by our fellow-men and often only vaguely 
felt by ourselves ; but it is made manifest by the motions 
and actions of the body, and the tones and modulations of 



Nature of Expression. 25 

the voice. We feel conscious of something which is 
called emotion, and find this emotion tends to cause some- 
thing outward which is motion. We are conscious of an 
inward condition, of indifference for example, or antago- 
nism, and immediately the actions and positions of the 
body become expressive of the unseen condition, and, 
through this expression, the psychic state is seen and felt 
by our fellow-man. Inward emotion causes an outward 
motion ; inward condition, an outward position. Thus 
expression is, "the motion of emotion," the presentation 
of a vast complexity of physical actions which are directly 
caused by psychic activities. The objective phenomena 
are manifestive of subjective experience. 

This conception of expression does not need to be 
established by argument ; it only needs careful observa- 
tion. The facts can be seen on every side in the most 
familiar actions of men and animals. Expression is one 
of the most universal and fundamental characteristics of 
man ; it belongs directly or indirectly to every act, con- 
scious or unconscious, from the first smile in the cradle 
to the fading away of the wrinkles around the eye after 
death ; and, indeed, if we look deeper, till the bones 
themselves return to dust. 

As we study further, we can see that expression is not 
peculiar to man. Throughout the universe we find that 
everything which is revealed to sense is simply an exter- 
nal manifestation of something which is mystic, an out- 
ward sign of an inward substance, an outward action of 
an inward activity. Force is not revealed per se to sense, 
it is only the phenomena of force which are seen, felt 
or heard. But, though force is not itself revealed to 
sense, there is nothing manifest without force. Matter 
itself is but force in a state manifest to. sense; it may 
be called the expression of force. This conception of the 



26 The Problem. 

universe is the result of experience common to us all ; 
all have felt "a presence that disturbs" us 

"with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean and the living air 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things." 

Evidences of a half- conscious recognition of this con- 
ception of expression are to be found in the familiar words 
of every-day speech. The word emotion is formed from 
its most salient characteristic, a tendency to produce 
motion, or, as some think, to become a motive to will. 
Again we say that man "exists," but we do not say 
"man is," on the other hand we say "God is," but in the 
strict use of language we do not say "God exists." 
Existence, derived from the Latin word sis to, a redupli- 
cation of sto, means that which stands out, that which 
possesses borrowed essence; so that we may say exist- 
ence is the expression of essence. The instincts of the 
race, therefore, bear testimony to the relation of force to 
matter, of the mystic to the manifest; and much of the 
ablest philosophy and the highest poetry have ever heard 
the voice of the Earth Spirit as she sings in Faust — 

" Thus ever at the loom of time I ply, 
And weave for God the garment thou seest him by." 

It can be seen at once that expression is most inti- 
mately related to language. The term language, origin- 
ally applied only to speech, is now so generalized as to be 
applied to every means of communication between one 
man and another. Even all forms of art are recognized 
as simply forms of language. Ruskin in his "Modern 



Nature of Expression. 27 

Painters" says : "Painting, or art generally as such, with 
all its technicalities, difficulties and particular ends, is 
nothing but a noble and expressive language, invaluable 
as the vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing. Take 
for instance, the ' Old Shepherd's Chief-mourner.' Here 
the exquisite execution of the glossy and crisp hair of the 
dog, the bright, sharp touching of the green bough beside 
it, the clear painting of the wood of the coffin and the 
folds of the blanket, are language — language clear and 
expressive in the highest degree. But the close pressure 
of the dog's breast against the wood, the convulsive cling- 
ing of the paws, which has dragged the blanket off the 
trestle, the total powerlessness of the head laid, close and 
motionless, upon its folds, the fixed and tearful fall of the 
eye in its utter hopelessness, the rigidity of repose which 
marks that there has been no motion nor change in the 
trance of agony since the last blow was struck on the 
coffin lid, the quietness and gloom of the chamber, the 
spectacles marking the place where the Bible was last, 
closed, indicating how lonely has been the life, how 
unwatched the departure of him who is now laid solitary 
in his sleep; these are all thoughts — thoughts by which 
the picture is separated at once from hundreds of equal 
merit, as far as mere painting goes, by which it ranks 
as a work of high art, and stamps its author, not as 
the neat imitator of the texture of a skin or the fold of a 
drapery, but as the Man of Mind." .. 

Art itself is but the revelation of man's conceptions, 
"the intervention of personality." Landseer simply 
used the spectacles, the open Bible, the shepherd's crook, 
the coffin and the dog as means of revealing to us cer- 
tain conceptions of his mind and feelings of his heart. 
These simple objects are presented to put us in communi- 
cation with his thinking and feeling soul. 



28 The Problem. 

We must not think, however, that language and expres- 
sion are the same ; above all we must not think that 
expression is simply a form of language ; it is really the 
aim of all language, the aim of all art, the aim of all 
modes of communicating the thoughts and feelings of 
man ; in short, language is only a means of expression. 

Expression, however, belongs specifically and funda- 
mentally to the living man, directly manifesting his feel- 
ings and thoughts through his organism. Man's natural 
languages are the first he employs, and expression belongs 
primarily to these. So that "the expression of man and 
animals " is broader and more specific than the language 
of man and animals. Language implies a more conscious 
and deliberate use of the means of communication, while 
expression covers all forms of revelation, conscious or 
unconscious, voluntary as well as involuntary, belonging 
to man or animals. 

Every form of art is either expression itself or a means 
of permanently recording and preserving expression. In 
many forms of art expression is dependent upon the 
execution in some permanent medium of the funda- 
mental elements of the direct revelation of man's powers. 
An expressive picture of a man, for instance, is that in 
which his most significant actions and features are 
represented and accentuated. 

So that there is no doubt that the fundamental appli- 
cation of the word expression applies to the revelation of 
man by motion and tone. And just as language does not 
remain confined to speech, so expression is used in a 
broader sense and is not confined merely to the natural 
languages. Therefore in the study of methods to develop 
and to co-ordinate in the living man all means of com- 
municating his thoughts and feelings, his states, condi- 
tions and purposes, expression is the most adequate term 



Nature of Expression. 29 

that can be found. Better than any other word, it repre- 
sents all the means which consciously or unconsciously 
show simultaneously what man thinks, feels and is, to his 
fellow-man. 

When we come further to study the actions and modifi- 
cations of man's body, we find that they are not necessa- 
rily expressive. We find that expression is not of the 
body, but through the body. " It is the soul that 
speaks." Actions of the body may be merely external, 
accidental, mechanical or utilitarian. Nothing is ever 
expressive which is not the transparent means of mani- 
festing the soul ; that is not directly caused by some 
thought, emotion or condition of the speaker's psychic 
faculties and powers. 

Hence the most expressive man does not necessarily 
make many motions or a great display of voice. In fact, 
whenever motions of the body or tones of the voice call 
attention to themselves, they distract the attention of .the 
auditor from the thought, and in so far destroy expres- 
sion. The object of training the voice and the body 
must always be to make them a better channel for the 
manifestation of thought and feeling. The highest per- 
fection in the action of every agent of expression is 
always in proportion to the transparency. 

However perfect the skill displayed by the circus rider, 
the dancer or the performer of any difficult physical feat, 
such an exhibition is not expression. Splendid tones in a 
singer may display wonderful skill in technique, but. sud- 
den leaps and skips of the voice are not necessarily 
expressive ; for one of the most fundamental of all dis- 
tinctions is that expression is not exhibition. But this 
distinction is unfortunately often forgotten. Performers 
often esteem it the height of their art to be able to make 
very beautiful gestures or attractive tones ; in fact, elocu- 



30 The Problem. 

tion especially has been regarded as mere skill in exhibi- 
tion. Notice the class of selections which are the chief 
stock and store of our public readers. The piece which 
can exhibit technique of voice has been most popular. 
Medleys mixing up extracts from great authors, so as to 
pervert absolutely their meaning, selections with low 
characters so that the face or body can be twisted into 
abnormal shapes, and the voice constricted into some 
guttural, husky or nasal quality, or extracts full of oddi- 
ties and abnormal emotions are the most popular with 
elocutionists. Rarely do we have selections from the 
best authors read from our platforms. In fact, our high- 
est authorities in elocution justify abnormal qualities of 
the voice as essential elements of the art. 

One of the best illustrations of this abnormal tendency 
is the way ordinary elocutionists read Dickens. Too 
often, his characters are made caricatures of nature, abso- 
lutely unlike any thing in existence. 

Illustrations of confounding expression with exhibition 
are infinite. Notice the way some of our teachers and 
readers hold their hands — placing their fingers in an 
artificial position, such as would rarely if ever be found 
in nature. The result may be a very pretty hand, as 
is of course the object of the performer, but this con- 
founds expression entirely with appearance. Indeed, to 
"appear" before an audience is often taken in the literal 
sense of making an appearance, overlooking the real 
province of expression as the art of revealing the ideals 
and conceptions, the emotions, experience and character 
of man. This position of the hands is discussed by Quin- 
tillian, and has been practised from his day to this, yet 
such placing of an agent externally limits its freedom, and 
as all expression is modulation of the body by emotion, it 
can be readily seen that hindrance to such modulation 



Nature of Expression. 3 1 

must fundamentally hinder expression. If an agent is 
externally fixed, it must be the same for all conditions and 
occasions ; and sameness is death to all power or truth or 
beauty in expression of any kind. 

Thus we can see that not only is expression not exhi- 
bition but that exhibition is the greatest enemy of expres- 
sion. Whenever a man makes a display of the means of 
expression for their own sake so that the attention of the 
mind is called to the execution, there can be little or no 
communication of thought or feeling. The only emotion 
awakened is wonder at the skill of the performer. When 
a speaker, for example, makes a great display of tears, the 
effect of grief is lost. Men may look at such a display 
and feel some weak emotion such as pity, but no sym- 
pathy can be awakened by such an exhibition. Emotion 
must ever transcend its sign. Whenever the signs and 
means of expression are greater than the thought, they 
cause all attention of the auditor's mind to be concen- 
trated upon the physical action itself ; thus most radically 
perverting and destroying the true nature of expression. 

And yet so long as the world is as it is, the public will 
desire exhibition for entertainment ; a show is something 
the world can see at a glance without making any intel- 
lectual effort to comprehend its meaning. Many are 
governed by what pleases their senses; what fascinates 
most the eye is taken for highest art. Unfortunately 
such spectacular exhibitions are considered by many as 
synonymous with dramatic expression, whereas there is 
not the least dramatic element in them ; for the most 
essential element of the dramatic is the revelation of 
human character. 

All the arts are one, and the same principles or mis- 
conceptions will ever be found at work in each. Unfor- 
tunately we have many examples of exhibition in other 



32 The Problem. 

departments of art. The painting of the present day 
shows the same evil tendency. An artist endeavors to 
paint striking pictures so as to be awarded a place in an 
exhibition. So that it has been said a young painter 
after working hard to get into the Paris Salon, has to 
work for several years to overcome the evil effects of his 
course. In an exhibition some time ago a very large 
painting occupied a post of honor in one corner of the 
gallery. The great black prow of an ocean steamer cov- 
ered one-fourth of the canvas, making a striking picture 
which every one who came into the room would notice. 
But it gave no conception of the grandeur of the ocean or 
of man's power over it. A leading artist said, "A little 
curling smoke in the distance would give us a better con- 
ception of a steamer than that." As the earnest student 
goes into our exhibitions, he feels that this is one of 
the curses of our art. So that our best painters often do 
not send their best work to the exhibitions, and when 
asked about it by visitors to their studios they make some 
such answer as this, " If you were a musician you would 
not like to play a symphony in one corner of a room while 
a brass band is playing in another corner." 

The preponderance of exhibition over expression has 
been a fundamental characteristic of bad art of every kind 
in every age. In fact it has been in all time the death of 
art. u The highest art conceals art." The best art is 
always expressive rather than decorative. The best art 
does not exist for the display of technique or the means 
employed, but for the revelation of that which is hidden. 
In all great art the impression steals upon us, we scarcely 
know how. Consciousness of the mere means destroys 
the perfection of the communication. The greater the 
art the more transparent the mechanical means of execu- 
tion. Every great art work seems to bring soul face to 



Nature of Expression. 33 

face with soul, and causes both to lose sight of the means 
by which their thoughts cross from one to the other. 

All art is an endeavor to tell the truth, and the highest 
art is the manifestation of those deepest and subtlest 
truths which are most liable to be lost sight of by the 
race. Hence the power of expression is dependent on 
the amount and character of the inner psychic conditions 
revealed, and upon the transparency of the manifestation. 
In short the true artist in any form of delivery as in any 
art, never presents his technique, his voice or body, his 
gesture or his attitude as an end to the audience, but uses 
them only as a means of manifesting his thoughts, emo- 
tions and convictions — his real manhood. Vocal or gest- 
ure training which tries to introduce beautiful tones or 
graceful movements for their own sake as a means of 
decoration is absolutely vicious. Mere admiration for 
voice and skill may result, but no deep, genuine passion is 
ever awakened. We are very little impressed with that 
which seems to cause great labor; the most ignorant mind 
will feel that something is wrong, though unable to give 
any adequate reason. 

There are two ordinary forms of imperfect expression, 
which seem entirely opposite and yet have one element in 
common : they both attract attention to the mechanism 
of the speaker. One of these faults is due to an absolute 
lack of control over the voice and body, or the misuse of 
the mechanism in speech, a physical friction, so to speak, 
which will call the attention of the speaker himself to his 
mechanical action, and the same effect greater in degree 
will be produced upon his audience. The opposite fault 
is affectation. This results from a misconception of art 
or of delivery, from pride in a graceful body and beautiful 
voice, or from some kind of aggregation. While this 
fault seems to be so antithetic to the other, yet it has the 



34 The Problem. 

same effect ; for the speaker's consciousness is centred 
upon the mechanism, and the mind of the audience always 
follows that of the speaker. 

In one case there is too little voluntary control, and in 
the other there is nothing but voluntary control. In 
both cases the action is apt to be conscious. Too much 
consciousness of manner, of language or of any means 
adopted in expression is wrong from whatever cause it 
may arise. Awkwardness is simply too much self-con- 
sciousness due to lack of control, while affectation is due 
to too much consciousness in control, to an over-plus of 
volition. There can be no great expression without 
ability to use the means of expression, with little con- 
sciousness of the mechanism both on the speaker's part 
and on the part of the audience. 

We must not, however, fall into the great error of 
supposing that truth is antagonistic to either beauty or 
grace, or that fidelity to truth must necessarily lead to 
awkwardness or ugliness ; for all true beauty is of the 
soul, and all true grace, of the spirit; so that artistic 
fidelity to truth will bring us to the very highest beauty. 
For though the statement that " beauty is the splendor of 
the true" may not have been written by Plato, yet it is 
an aphoristic expression of the soundest philosophy of 
aesthetics. 

Not only is this true, but we find that when we come 
to study the aim of expression, whether that aim be to 
please or to win men to the truth, there is fundamentally 
implied the necessity of expressing charmingly. It is 
love of truth, love of our kind, that leads man to expres- 
sion. Therefore fidelity to truth itself demands that it 
shall be put in the best possible way, that it shall be so 
rendered that no antagonism may be awakened, but on 
the contrary a disposition to receive it. In fact, it is the 



Nature of Expression. 35 

deeper, more delicate and beautiful, the more subtle and 
spiritual elements that are most apt to be lost sight of in 
ordinary expression ; so that fidelity to truth demands 
freedom from all sham and restoration to the simplicity, 
the plenitude, the beauty and charm of nature. 

It is strange that the lesson is so difficult to learn, that 
there is no antagonism between truth and beauty, and 
that affectation for the sake of a misconceived decoration 
is not only a violation of the truth but is fundamentally 
hostile to all laws of beauty. 

As an illustration, take what seems to be a very import- 
ant exception to the principle. In the expression of 
anger or any ignoble emotion, truth seems to demand 
that everything should be made as ugly as possible, while 
beauty demands that the ugly element be softened and 
toned down and only suggested if not eliminated. Both 
of these facts are true of abnormal emotions and char- 
acters ; but granting them to be universal principles, the 
exception is only a seeming one, for both beauty and 
truth demand a contrast between the normal and abnor- 
mal, and the abnormal is chiefly of worth in expres- 
sion to show the departures from the normal ; because 
whether in truth or beauty, the abnormal indirectly 
suggests the normal, and sometimes the normal can be 
more effectively suggested by presenting the abnormal ; 
but to present the abnormal merely for its own sake, 
violates all the laws of truth as well as beauty. 

Thus we find that expression is not a mere physical 
thing, that it is not a quality of the body, but the result 
of the manifestation of the soul through the body ; the 
revelation of the subjective through the objective. We 
find that it is not a mere appearance or display, but a 
revelation through outward signs of inward and otherwise 
hidden substance ; in short, that exhibition is the worst 



36 The Problem. 

enemy to true expression. We have also found that 
what is within must ever transcend that which is without, 
and that the test of true power in expression is not the 
appearance or the beauty of the sign, but its significance 
and suggestiveness, not in the skill displayed or exhibition 
that is made, but in the degree of revelation. In other 
words, the fundamental test must be truth and never 
prettiness for its own sake, or mere beauty or grace which 
attracts attention to itself as an end instead of serving as 
a truthful revelation of the corresponding quality of the 
soul. We find that affectation is not only wrong in itself, 
but that its action is the direct reverse' of ' nature's 
method, and must therefore essentially hinder nature's 
process and supplant her causes. 

Thus we make one step in our search for a method of 
developing expression. The result of all work done must 
be to enable man to "tell the truth, the whole truth and 
nothing but the truth." ' It must not be an art giving a 
man the power to seem to be what he is not, to cause him 
to try to create thought in other minds which is not in his 
own mind, and never merely to give a display of graceful 
actions or pleasant qualities for their own sake. In 
short, that while it is necessary to speak as beautifully as 
possible and to bring grace into every phase of expres- 
sion, yet the highest delivery must be a result of the 
revelation of the deepest elements of the soul. 



II. 

MISCONCEPTIONS OF EXPRESSION. 

" Style is the man himself." — Buff on. 

Sometimes we realize better what a thing is by 
studying what it is not. Truth is often more adequately 
comprehended when contrasted with its opposite, false- 
hood. There are always near every great truth many 
errors which seem identical with it. This is due to the 
fact that every great truth is fundamental ; it is deeply 
hidden from our eyes, and to find it requires searching 
beneath the surface. It is below all appearance although 
it may be revealed through appearance. Men are apt to 
dwell upon that which first arrests attention, and what 
appears to be true at first sight is often accepted as a 
fundamental principle. Nearly all falsehoods and mis- 
conceptions rise from mistaking accidental appearances 
for fundamental causes. And as expression has to do 
with appearance we can see why such a great number of 
misconceptions arise in connection with this subject. 

Not only does this give rise to the fundamental mis- 
conception that expression is the same as exhibition 
already discussed, but to the mistake so long and so 
widely prevalent in the distinction between matter and 
manner in public speaking. This distinction as com- 
monly understood is ridiculous and impossible ; for it is 
implied by it and asserted by many, that work in the 
study of a subject and the embodiment of the thought in 
words is a mental act, while delivery is a physical act. 



$8 The Problem. 

It is true that in delivery there is an added physical 
element which is not present in the preparation of the 
thought. In expression there must not only be thought 
and the feeling such thought awakens, but this thought 
and feeling must not exist vaguely in the soul. They 
must be thought and felt, so to speak, into and through 
the body. But though different, the chief, the funda- 
mental action in delivery, is psychic ; so that expression is 
an action of the mind fully as much as composition is. 
The true orator must have great power of thinking, not 
only while composing, but at the moment he speaks. 
Preparation can only be general, can only secure an out- 
line of the thought, can only make him familiar with the 
road ; but however definitely he may mark out this road, 
the path must be re-traveled in the act of speaking. 

Many great scientists who are good thinkers, cannot 
speak in public, but this is rarely due to physical condi- 
tions. Their voices are frequently very strong and many 
of them have magnificent physiques. It is simply 
because they have not developed the action of the mind 
in speaking as they have in making investigations, or in 
arranging and expressing ideas in written words. The 
writer, the musician or the painter has trained his mind 
to use a certain tool for the expression of his thought and 
feeling. Hence, although he has used his voice and body 
all his life, he cannot effectually think and feel, so to 
speak, into his own voice and body. Ole Bull, it is said, 
could speak best to his fellow-men and even pray best 
through his violin. 

A bad ear does not refer to physical defects as to size 
or structure ; its possessor can hear sound as far away as 
his musical friend ; the imperfection exists because the 
mind has not been trained to use the ear for the appre- 
hension of intervals. All who have ever trained poor 



Misconceptions of Expression. 39 

ears have realized the necessity of securing attention 
through the ear. So the fundamental problem for the 
development of a speaker must ever be to bring his voice 
and body under the domination of his soul. 

Not only is delivery a result of mental actions but of 
actions different from composition. The action of the 
mind in creating, in thinking out a subject, does not have 
such direct relation to other minds ; while the act of 
thinking in delivery is the endeavor so to think and feel 
as to lead other minds and hearts simultaneously to fol- 
low us. The one is more creative, the other is more 
reproductive; the one is merely to comprehend, to under- 
stand, to get possession ; the other is to realize and mani- 
fest, to make the thought clear to other minds or to 
awaken in other souls a response to the importance of the 
truth at the moment of utterance. 

Almost all the faculties of the mind are concerned in 
the act of expression. They do not act so analytic- 
ally or individually as in production. They act more 
spontaneously, more harmoniously, more synthetically. 
A greater number of the faculties in more complex 
co-ordinations and combinations must be awakened. The 
whole man, in short, must act ; even those powers which 
are more unconscious, more akin to instinct and intuition, 
must especially be awake. These must ever furnish the 
fundamental impulse. The writer arranges his ideas and 
endeavors to embody thought in words, while the speaker 
not only endeavors to embody his ideas in words, but to 
reveal all the phases of experience arising from these 
ideas or associated with them through a co-ordination of 
all the living languages of his personality. Not only 
must he have "words that burn/' but tones and inflec- 
tions, motions and actions, which breathe and live with 
the deepest life of his soul. 



40 The Problem. 

If this is true we can see that there are certain extem- 
poraneous elements in all true delivery. Even though 
the speaker's ideas may be put into words, and the words 
be read or given from memory, still, all great oratory 
requires that the ideas be re-created. The thought must 
not only be reproduced by symbols, but the process of its 
creation must be reproduced and manifested. The 
powers of the man must act at the time he speaks, no 
matter what his preparation may have been, or he is not 
an orator. The idea that a man in speaking is a mere 
physical machine is the fundamental cause of the bad 
delivery so prevalent at the present time. Whenever a 
man thinks that he is simply doing something that will 
awaken thought in others, without thought in his own 
mind, not merely a day or a week or a year before, but at 
the moment he endeavors to convey the thought — or 
who thinks he can awaken feeling in another's breast 
when his own is cold — is trying to accomplish an end 
without legitimate cause or means, and is acting in direct 
violation of nature's fundamental laws. It is only by a 
vivid realization of an idea or situation that genuine 
emotion is stimulated in the speaker's breast. Emotional 
conditions can be prepared ; but the feeling itself can 
only be a spontaneous realization of the pictorial concep- 
tion in the mind of the speaker at the moment he speaks. 
There is nothing so ineffective and unnatural as stale 
emotion; one of the most fundamental instincts of the 
human soul requires that emotion shall be extempo- 
raneous and spontaneous. 

Thus, all effective delivery in speaking is due to the 
direct possession and realization of ideas at the moment 
they are spoken. Mere possession of the idea yesterday 
will help, but will not enable one to express it to-day, 
without re-thinking it, re-seeing it, re-feeling it, inspired 



Misconceptions of Expression. 41 

by contact with other souls. There is no true living 
expression without a realization of every idea in succes- 
sion as the cause. Even correct technical and physical 
actions in delivery result from this realization of the 
successive ideas and successive situations. 

Whenever a man says that all his care and study is for 
the matter of his speech, that all oratory depends solely 
on what is said, he confounds the function of the orator 
with the function of the essayist. What is to be read in 
an easy- chair by the fireside is one thing, what is to be 
the immediate revelation of the living soul, the living 
thought and passion of the living man face to face with 
his fellow-men, is a different thing. Literary composition 
is a very great art and so is oratory, but they are not the 
same. One is a representation of thought and truth in 
verbal language, the other is "the presentation of truth 
by personality," and the revelation of all phases of this 
personality in connection with truth by a co-ordination of 
the living languages of the man. The orator not only 
conveys truth clearly by means of words, but shows its 
vital relation to the human soul through the co-opera- 
tion of the living languages. 

Not only is this true, but the style of the words is 
different. That which is written for an essay rarely 
makes a good speech. This fact may not be realized in 
our modern oratory, for modern sermons and speeches are 
not always written spontaneously or extemporaneously. 
In many cases they are mere patch-work, in most 
instances possibly they are more like essays. There is 
an endeavor to say everything in words. It was not so 
with the Greek orators. Many men have contended that 
what has come down to us as the orations of Demos- 
thenes are merely abstracts, because they are too concise 
for public oratory. But this is the modern, perverted, 



42 The Problem. 

abnormal idea of oratory. Looked at from an ideal point 
of view the literary style of perfect oratory must be more 
concise than the style of what is simply to be read. 
There are many things which the tone of the voice can 
say better than words. A motion of the hand, an action 
of the eye or of the face, can supply an ellipsis which the 
essayist or novelist must give in words. 

One of the most familiar illustrations of this is the 
difference between the drama and the novel. All will 
probably agree that the amount of thought is as great in 
Hamlet as in a great novel — as for example, in David 
Copperfield, though Hamlet covers only a few pages and 
David Copperfield takes several volumes. This difference 
is due to the fact that the drama is to be presented 
through the living languages of man and be both seen 
and heard, while the novel is only intended to be read in 
an easy- chair. 

This principle is shown by Dickens himself. In a 
fac-simile of a page from the readings as arranged by 
him from his novels for his public recitations, I counted 
the words which were erased. In the original novel there 
were one hundred and ninety-three words, and of these 
one hundred and nineteen were marked out ; yet no 
important idea was omitted that Dickens could not readily 
supply by a look or a tone or some use of the natural 
languages in combination with the words. 

Thus we see that a man face to face with his fellow- 
men, in full possession of his personality, with power to 
reveal the action, emotion or condition of his whole 
nature, must express differently from the writer at his 
desk. Each breathes his personality into his work, but 
the speaker has the advantage of all his natural languages 
as well as words, and can reveal simultaneously any phase 
of his personality when his body is in a state thoroughly 



Misconceptions of Expression. 43 

prepared and attuned to his being with all the channels of 
expression free from any constriction or hindrance. So 
that all ideal oratory must be concise, or at least its style 
must differ from the essay as the drama does from the 
novel, or the poem from history. 

This tendency to conceive all expression as a mere 
physical thing, the result of some tact, entirely independ- 
ent of the mind and soul, as in the case of misconceiving 
expression as exhibition, is not confined to elocution. 
There is a widely prevalent tendency now to consider 
all art work as something separate from the real man, 
the result of technical skill. Some one has said that 
Gustave Dore did not read the Bible until he read it 
to illustrate it. His illustrations certainly hint at this. 

Some time ago a large painting of Christ on Calvary 
was exhibited in different cities. The faces of the Jews 
and Roman soldiers, according to their different types 
and the coarse and vulgar thoughts animating them, were 
carefully and accurately portrayed. The ideal characters 
of the piece were placed at the foot of the cross, with 
their faces hidden. The Master himself was represented 
merely as a physical body emaciated by suffering. It 
sold for a very high price and was evidently painted 
for this end — painted as a striking picture that would 
impress strongly an ordinary observer ; but as a picture, 
except as a mere study of technique, it was a failure. It 
showed the worldly side and that only, and gave no hint 
of the significance in history of the great tragedy of Cal- 
vary. If it had been painted by an honest disbeliever in 
Christ, it could not have been painted so, if the painter 
had been a true artist, because he could see the signifi- 
cance in history, and the power over thousands of lives of 
that death, and would have honestly tried to portray 
Mary the Magdalene and John as well as Judas, the 



44 The Problem. 

Romans and the Pharisees. Such a picture as this could 
only have been painted by one blind to spiritual facts, one 
who merely painted from his models. He evidently was 
not in sympathy with that great scene, and Calvary to 
him was simply a weak man dying in the midst of coarse 
and villainous men. Certainly there were those that 
realized more what it meant. While they could not 
appreciate completely the spiritual element of the Christ, 
and the reason for his death, yet there were those at the 
foot of that cross who "kept all these things in their 
hearts." These are merely prostrated with grief and 
their faces hidden, and no yearning eyes look up to him 
with a vague, instinctive faith. Above all, no repose 
rests upon the brow of the Christ, or is inspired in the 
faces that look upon him. Such a picture is a sad com- 
ment upon the technical exhibition falsely called art, 
which is so common at the present day. 

In the same way delivery is now regarded merely as 
the art side, by which most people mean merely the 
technical manner, merely the polish. Frequently those 
who come to study delivery tell the teachers that they 
have done sufficient work upon the matter, and they now 
wish to work merely upon the manner, as if manner were 
something separate from personality, separate from the 
action of the mind and soul of the man, and could be put 
on or off like a coat. 

Yet this common distinction between matter and man- 
ner, making one physical and the other psychic, naturally 
leads to such conclusions. There is no doubt that a 
man's mode of presentation may directly reverse the most 
essential elements of his thought, and though they may 
be logically distinguished from each other, the one is not 
a physical thing and the other a mental thing. The 
trouble with bad delivery nine-tenths of the time is a 



Misconceptions of Expression. 45 

failure to use the faculties of the mind, or a misuse of 
them in the act of speaking ; and one reason why deliv- 
ery has not been made better is this very fact that it 
has been considered merely a physical thing, separate 
from personality ; for such a view causes the speaker to 
try to develop delivery by aggregation, rather than by 
seeking such methods as will train his powers and 
agents to manifest his personality simultaneously with 
his thought. 

Teachers, too, have been led to seek for the causes of 
imperfect delivery in the body only, and so have uncon- 
sciously been prevented from tracing faults to their true 
causes. 

Again, it is often said of a speaker that he is too dra- 
matic. When we see and hear him we find that he is 
not dramatic at all. He simply has a labored, aggregated 
delivery, foreign to his own personality. The nature of 
the man and his delivery are so disconnected that the 
most ignorant can feel that there is something wrong; 
and so for lack of a word ignorance calls it "too dramatic." 

Of all faults in expression the worst is for a man not to 
be himself. It is not only the worst fault, it is the most 
common. But what is the cause of it ? It is often sim- 
ply the idea that delivery is a physical thing, separate 
from thought, something a man can join to himself by 
some process of aggregation. The young speaker gets 
the idea that in order to express well he must add some- 
thing to himself greater and better than he really is, 
must try to be somebody else, like the toad in the fable 
must endeavor to expand to the size of some real or 
imaginary ox. The result is, that the man becomes 
stilted and artificial. He cannot be natural, for he is 
uncentred. His powers cannot act effectively, for they 
are unpoised and out of harmony. 



46 The Problem. 

Abnormal, however, as this may seem, it arises more 
naturally than we would first think. Every man's ideal 
transcends his actual. His power of conception sur- 
passes his power of performance or execution, or at any 
rate the power of conception is first in the natural order 
and much easier. Few are willing to do the hard work of 
training necessary to attain power of execution, and it is 
just at the point of carrying conception into execution 
that the mind is most readily led astray. 

Besides this, the young speaker gets a conception of 
the wonderful power of expression from observing the 
delivery of another man, and thus is very liable, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, to imitate him or endeavor to 
aggregate his peculiarities. The same is true of the 
young actor. He observes the wonderful power of Irving 
or Booth for example, and tries to execute the same 
passages. But he begins at the wrong end. He endeav- 
ors merely to reproduce results, to aggregate, but does 
not go to the cause. So he loses the simplicity and 
power, and merely aggregates the outside. Therefore the 
expression is felt at once to be an adjunct and not the 
evolution of the man's mind. 

, There is still another cause of all this. In most of our 
-systems of education everything man learns has to be 
gathered by instruction. The aim of education in mod- 
ern times has been too much a mere matter of acquiring 
information. The highest type of a scholar has been and 
still is in many quarters, one who has the greatest knowl- 
edge of the greatest variety of subjects. All the great 
reforms in education for the past two hundred years have 
been endeavors to correct such an inadequate conception. 
The aims of the "new education" in every age from 
Commenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel, down to 
the innumerable educational reformers of our day, with 



Misconceptions of Expression. 47 

their endeavors to establish natural methods of teaching 
languages and to apply in every department advanced 
methods of education, have this in common : that they 
have endeavored to educate or unfold the man's powers 
rather than to merely cram him full of facts, to stimulate 
him from within, and not merely to fill him from without. 

But although there are many widespread reforms in all 
departments of education at the present time, and these 
reforms have affected almost all classes of schools and 
professions, strange to say, it has reached last that 
department of education, or at least has made no great 
advance in that department of education where we would 
naturally think it would have the first effect, namely : the 
work of elocution or expression. Many of the reforms of 
education, especially in the study of English, were advo- 
cated and initiated by an elocutionist one hundred and 
fifty years ago. But, notwithstanding that, and the fact 
that we have had several great advocates and workers in 
this department, still, either on account of the lack of 
encouragement or on account of a lack of co-operation on 
the part of a great number of thinkers, public reading, 
recitation and speaking in our schools is taught in vio- 
lation of the most fundamental laws of true education. 
We still have in our public schools the small boy trying to 
expand himself into Webster ; we still see in most places 
the young man standing up for his declamation as stiff 
as a soldier on parade, and making gestures which any 
man of common sense knows to be unnatural, that could 
only have been aggregated from without. If the expres- 
sion of the man had been drawn out from his real nature 
he could not possibly have made such movements. 

All our professional schools, and especially such as 
schools of Law or Theology, where young men are placed 
to be trained for public speaking, are behind in methods 



48 The Problem. 

of education. This is one very important reason why the 
work of expression or the education of public speakers has 
not made greater progress ; in all that pertains to the 
speaking, the methods do not yet deal, as a rule, with the 
fundamental condition of the problem. Students for the 
ministry are still taught in many places to write essays, 
and have rules laid down for them which are purely 
external and artificial. All that is given in delivery is a 
few general suggestions and criticisms, with little or no 
training. The same is true of the colleges. While very 
wonderful progress has been made in the study of Eng- 
lish in many schools, yet the progress has been very slow, 
and in reality little has been done for the improvement of 
anything more than mere verbal expression. The prob- 
lem of improving men in practical expression in all its 
branches has received little attention. 

Several years ago, a young man who has since become a 
popular preacher and has been pastor of many of our best 
churches, came to me with his commencement oration for 
assistance in its delivery. After he had read it through 
to me I called his attention to the fact that it was not at 
all prepared for delivery, but was a mere essay; and, as an 
illustration, I took one sentence, composed of twenty or 
thirty words, and put it into four or five, and asked him if 
that was what he meant. He said "yes, but that was the 
way anybody would say it." I told him he must speak his 
speech as anybody would speak it if he expected anybody 
to listen. It was with great difficulty, however, that I 
persuaded him to go to work all over again and write his 
speech with his audience before him and his purpose in 
mind, and endeavor to express simply what he had to say. 
With such a use of language good delivery is impossible. 

I know Emerson said that those parts of a speech not 
well written must be covered over with good elocution, 



Misconceptions of Expression. 49 

but he must have meant this as a joke. It hardly seems 
possible that our great reformer should have had such a 
misconception of the real work of delivery. It is rather 
to be taken as an indirect rebuke to this universal miscon- 
ception of delivery as an aggregation to conceal superfi- 
ciality of thought ; not a truthful and adequate revelation 
of profound thought and feeling, but a substitute for them. 
It seems strange that it has taken the world so long to 
see that aggregation in all art, and especially delivery, is 
affectation ; that the fundamental nature of expression 
requires the human being to be self-centred and all truth 
assimilated ; that all expression must be simply the evo- 
lution and revelation of the conditions and actions of the 
soul ; that the aim must not be to seem, but simply to 
show what we are ; that of all phases of education the 
work for the development of expression in any form needs 
most of all to proceed according to the fundamental laws 
and principles of nature. 



III. 

KINDS OF EXPRESSION. 

" Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy, 
Sphere-born harmonious sisters, voice and verse, 
Wed your divine sounds and mixed power employ, 
Dead things with unbreathed sense able to pierce." 

— Milton. 

When we come to study expression still more closely 
we find that man's entire organism is linguistic; that 
every part of the body is concerned in the manifestation 
of the conditions and actions of the mind ; that the whole 
body breathes and thrills with the activity of the soul. 

And not only is the whole body linguistic, but every 
part of the body plays a distinct role in expression. The 
feet, for example, can manifest certain conditions of the 
man which cannot be indicated by any other agent in the 
body. 

Nature shows everywhere an intention that all parts of 
the body should co-operate with each other for the 
accomplishment of one end. The language of the hand 
is entirely distinct from the language of the face, though 
the two are capable of the greatest unity and consistency. 
The language of the torso is entirely distinct from the 
language of the arm. The language of inflection dis- 
charges a different function from that of tone-color, so 
that one can never be translated into the other, but both 
are meant by nature to be present at the same time, as 
the co-ordinate revelation of different phases of the soul's 
conditions and activity. 

We find that the languages of the body, while com- 
posed of many diverse elements, can be divided into three 



Kinds of Expression. 51 

classes, each of which is given by means of a separate 
mechanism : verbal expression, vocal expression and pan- 
tomimic expression. 

Verbal language, including all words or speech forms, 
is a language of conventional or artificial symbols. It is 
the language, however originating, that is most depend- 
ent upon education, and has been more completely devel- 
oped by custom than any other; for while the tendency 
to words may be innate, yet, in all cases, education has 
shaped their peculiar form. A child born of English 
parents, removed in its earliest infancy from an English 
to a German family, for instance, will show very few 
traces in speech of its English origin. A brogue is not 
so much an inheritance, as the result of the speech the 
child hears from its parents during early childhood. The 
earliest speech the child hears, is of course the most 
important in determining the verbal language of the man. 

Verbal language being a symbolic form of expression, 
that is, words being equivalent symbols of ideas, can be 
recorded ; though Humboldt, the father of philology, held 
that only a spoken word could be considered a real word. 
" It is," said he, "only by the spoken word that the 
speaker breathes, as it were, his inner soul into the soul 
of his hearers. Written language is only the imperfect 
.and mummy-like embalming, of which the highest use is 
that it may serve as a means of reproducing the living 
utterances." Yet universal custom regards written and 
spoken language as the same. That they contain ele- 
ments entirely distinct from each other is shown by many 
facts. It is only verbal expression that can be written in 
artificial signs so as to be the common property of the 
race. Vocal expression cannot be recorded or expressed 
in symbols so as to 'be reproduced by another voice. The 
discovery of the phonograph enables us to record by 



52 The Problem. 

means of a mechanical instrument certain peculiarities 
and modulations of the voice, but it is only a mechanical 
process, and gives no key by which living effects can be 
reproduced by another voice. 

Again, verbal expression may be partially separated 
from vocal expression if spoken in a whisper. This does 
not wholly separate them, for a whisper, though tone-color 
may be eliminated, can be modulated and show changes of 
pitch and inflection, and is often very expressive. Still, 
we can feel something of the significance of mere words 
as a language, distinct from vocal expression. We find 
that in a whisper a man may manifest his thoughts, but 
that he cannot reveal feelings such as love or joy. 
Thus the peculiar province of verbal expression is pri- 
marily to manifest human thought and reason, and is the 
most complete and adequate means of revealing ideas. 

One of our ablest writers very beautifully and poetically 
says that words are fossilized poetry. His figure is not 
only beautiful, but correct. We must remember, how- 
ever, that the fossil is not the living animal. The spoken 
word comes from the heart of the speaker, living and 
breathing with his life, full of the warmth of his heart. 
The written word, on the contrary, is the fossil remains of 
this living word. Thus, written language, though the 
most important record of thought, is not a complete or 
perfect language of itself. There are elements of expres- 
sion revealing important phases of experience that cannot 
possibly be recorded. No symbol can manifest adequately 
the inflection, the color, the pitch or any of the modula- 
tions of the voice which so clearly manifest the emotional 
conditions and the motives of the speaker. 

The exaggerated attention paid to verbal expression is 
due to the fact that it is the most conscious form of 
expression, also to the fact that it is a language that can 



Kinds of Expression. 53 

be recorded so as to be seen by the eye, and is the means 
of preserving the great ideas of the past. Besides, it is 
the most definite language and primarily the most neces- 
sary for adequate communion with our kind ; the others 
are normally intended to be its adjuncts. 

Vocal expression appeals only to the ear. Verbal 
expression when spoken also appeals to the ear; when 
written, to the eye. But as has been said, there never has 
been discovered any adequate means of recording the 
phenomena of vocal expression so as to appeal to the eye, 
either because it is so completely passing, or because 
its phenomena are so wonderfully complex and subtle. 
Even in our own day such a careful observer as Herbert 
Spencer says that "cadence is the' running commentary 
of the emotions upon the propositions of the intellect." 
This is true when said of all vocal expression, all modu- 
lations of the voice ; but is not so true of cadence as it 
is of tone-color. Such vague and inadequate remarks as 
this reveal the fact that the speaking voice has received 
very little attention from scientists. Writers differ in 
regard to the range of the speaking voice, some contend- 
ing that it has only a range of two or three notes, while 
others contend that the voice in speaking has a range of 
more than an octave, still others say fully two octaves. 
Science has not given us exact statements regarding 
most of the phenomena of the voice in speech. The 
voice in singing has received more attention, probably 
because singing is an artificial art, and a tone can be 
prolonged and partly recorded, and so studied independ- 
ent of words, and also because the phenomena of vocal 
expression, though essentially music, are more complex 
than song, and facts regarding it more difficult to obtain. 

Vocal expression is especially liable to be lost sight of 
en account of its connection with verbal expression. 



54 The Problem. 

Voice is usually considered as the mere material of 
speech, and men do not think of it as being a language of 
itself. But it is distinct from words in many aspects. 
For instance, it is distinct in respect to the organs that 
produce it. Voice is moulded into speech wholly in the 
oral chamber, and there is no modification of the element- 
ary sounds of the language lower than the soft palate ; 
while the language of tone is produced more especially 
back of this, the inflections and changes of pitch being 
produced in the larynx, and the tone-color and the qual- 
ities of voice being produced primarily in the pharynx, 
but really also modified by the whole body. 

Again, it is distinct in significance. While words are 
manifestive of the thought, it takes the tones and inflec- 
tions of the voice to manifest the emotions of the man,, 
and the relation of his experience to his thought. Inflec- 
tion manifests intellectual belief, conviction and earnest- 
ness, sincerity of motive and the like, while the color of 
the voice manifests the deepest emotional conditions of 
the man — his joy or sorrow, his love or hate. 

In fact, the elements of vocal expression are not only 
distinct from those of verbal expression, but have power 
to completely reverse the spirit of the thought that is 
embodied in the words. It is impossible to put into 
words the function and subjective relationship which can 
be so delicately and exactly revealed by the color and 
various modifications of the tone. Falsehood can be 
easily told by words, but it is very difficult to hide the 
false ring when there is an endeavor to express an 
untruth through tones and inflections. 

Another proof that the function of vocal expression is 
distinct from words, is found in the fact that it is often 
separated from verbal expression in nature. In the little 
child vocal expression is very effective before a single 



Kinds of Expression. 55 

word can be articulated. The tones, inflections and 
modulations of the voice reveal the feelings of the child. 
Again, birds and animals have vocal expression in a crude 
form, but no verbal expression. Parrots and a few other 
birds are taught to imitate a few words which are 
repeated without much reference to their meaning, but 
this does not disprove the principle. 

Now, if all this is true, how false is the ordinary 
conception of vocal expression ! Most people pretend to 
look upon a beautiful voice, beautiful tone-color, soft and 
beautiful intonations, definite attack, good inflections and 
well-developed form in speech, as merely so much decora- 
tion, something to add to the beauty of speech, but with 
no distinct function in manifesting truth. This fearful 
error has its root in ignorance ; for while the tones and 
inflections of the voice do very materially add to the audi- 
tor's delight and pleasure, still all forms of vocal expres- 
sion supplement the verbal and manifest the emotional 
elements, while verbal expression can only symbolize the 
outline of the thought ; and it is the co-ordination of the 
two that is the glory of human speech. 

The importance of this vocal part of language to the 
truthful presentation of thought cannot be overestimated. 
Man's inflections and tones will be believed more readily 
than words. The reason for this is that verbal expres- 
sion is more manifestive of conscious mental action, while 
vocal expression manifests not only the conscious feel- 
ings, but also the unconscious emotions and conditions 
of the speaker's character and soul, and is recognized and 
read by the instincts of man. 

The third form of expression may be called panto- 
mimic. This word is used as the most convenient term 
to express all forms of language which appeal to the eye. 
This meaning is indicated by the etymology of the word 



56 The Problem. 

rather than by its usage. All the attitudes and motions 
of the body which manifest emotions and conditions of 
the soul, the permanent bearings which indicate charac- 
ter, belong to this form of expression. Pantomime is 
similar in significance to vocal expression, and also 
belongs to the realm of what is called natural language. 
Like vocal expression it is read and apprehended by the 
instincts of men. It is a language which is very generic, 
and belongs also in some form to most animals. It man- 
ifests the character and conditions of the man, but does 
not directly symbolize his thought, and its most impor- 
tant elements are almost wholly unconscious. 

There is of course a conventional form of pantomimic 
expression, the sign language of deaf mutes and that of 
the Indians. This form can represent ideas, but for the 
most part in all civilized countries of the world panto- 
mime is more interpretive, more suggestive as a language 
than a symbolic representation of thought. 

There is a tendency on the part of many to belittle 
pantomimic expression, but linguistic action in some form 
is never absent. Vocal expression is not separated from 
words in ordinary speech, but pantomime is more inde- 
pendent. A look of the eye, a grasp of the hand may 
speak what many sentences would fail to convey. In the 
stir of deep feeling, when the tongue is dumb with inade- 
quacy to express the depths of the soul of man, the lip 
trembles, the eye flashes, the body expands, the hand is 
held out and gives a gentle pressure, and all is clear ; the 
soul at once feels the links of sympathy, the appreciation 
of the whole situation. In the manifestation of feeling, 
the revelation of the relations and real character of the 
man, pantomime is far more effective than words. 

It is evidently the intention of nature that the lan- 
guage of each part should bear witness in its proper 



Kinds of Expressio?i. 57 

sphere to the truth expressed by the others, and thus "in 
the mouth of two or three witnesses every word be estab- 
lished." Without this harmonious co-ordination of lan- 
guages, without this harmony of all nature's intended 
agents of expression, perfect truthfulness and adequacy 
of expression are impossible. 

Thus when we come to study expression we find that a 
normal man has these three languages. It is never fair 
to compare one of these with another, for nature evi- 
dently intended that they should complement each other, 
and that no one of them should ever be substituted for 
the others. All the objection that has been urged 
against pantomime has been due to the endeavor to make 
pantomime discharge the function of words, and the same 
is true of vocal expression. Pantomime, vocal expression 
or the representation of ideas by words, must each be 
judged according to its appropriate function, its own 
peculiar action and character, but not in . respect to the 
substitution of one form for another ; for the meaning of 
one can hardly be translated into that of another. They 
stand in organic unity and one can no more be compared 
with another than the function of the head can be com- 
pared with that of the hand. One can as well be sub- 
stituted for another in expression, as the arm can be 
substituted for the leg in walking. 

Thus oratory is meant to be the co-ordination of all the 
living languages of man ; bringing the character of the 
soul to witness the truth uttered by the tongue. It is 
meant to be a living presentation of thought in all its 
aspects, in all its relations to human character, by the 
co-ordination of many languages ; and not a presentation 
of everything through one language — that of words. 

No skillful lawyer in conducting his case calls witnesses 
that will contradict each other. The great artist in any 



58 The Problem. 

department will seek the best means of conveying his 
conception. The material employed, the drawing, the 
purpose of the work, the place it is to occupy, he knows 
very well must be carefully considered. So the true 
orator despises nothing. He knows that every language 
natural to man is intended to perform a certain function 
in his great work of speaking, and that unless all these 
languages are brought into co-ordination, unless the testi 
mony of each is made to bear out the same purpose, he 
knows that one will contradict another, and his expres- 
sion thus be weakened. He realizes that his whole man- 
ner must be a transparency through which his thoughts 
and feelings can be seen; that one is the candle, the 
other the blaze, without which there can be no light. 

Supposing for the sake of argument, we grant that 
vocal and pantomimic expression have simply to do with 
manner, and that verbal expression has to do with the 
matter of the speech, then, as has been shown, the 
manner has power to reverse the matter, and oratorical 
truthfulness absolutely requires the two to be consistent 
with each other. Both are absolutely necessary to a com- 
plete and adequate manifestation of the thought and soul 
of the man. 

A man who says it makes no difference how a speech 
is delivered, that all depends merely upon the thought, 
overlooks the fundamental characteristic of unity in 
nature. Every form of expression manifests a different 
phase of the man ; yet all in unison with each other form 
a transparency of character. It is only by the use of 
these three languages as co-ordinate witnesses that any 
truth can be revealed or established by man. 

On the other hand, the man who says it does not make 
any difference what he says, that all depends upon the 
manner of his speech, is much farther from the truth. 



Kinds of Expression. 59 

He seeks to accomplish an effect without nature's 
appointed means. The proper cause will tend of itself 
to find adequate means, but the most adequate means 
without cause is dead. 

Here we see some of the causes of the decline of the 
art of oratory. Such one-sidedness of view as these and 
others that could be mentioned, would be the death of 
any art. As can be seen, the real province of oratory has 
been lost sight of. It has become a mere language of 
words, all rhetoric of modern times having passed over to 
the mere recording of ideas in symbols. Oratory has 
lost its original and fundamental character of revealing 
the many phases of the experience of the soul, through 
nature's well-appointed and manifold means of manifesta- 
tion. Oratory is no longer the simultaneous manifestation 
of truth and experience as realized by the whole soul, but 
the mere communication of ideas through words ; no 
longer the co-ordination of nature's manifold languages by 
the simultaneous revelation of the many phases of human 
experience for their mutual interpretation, but the mere 
use of one language to the exclusion of all others. 

This change is no doubt due to the invention of print- 
ing, and to the fact that a part of the function of ancient 
oratory is now discharged by the press, so that men now 
study rhetoric simply to become writers. But it will be 
the endeavor to show in the course of this work that this 
divorce has hurt the art of writing itself, because a true 
writer must have an instinctive and a vivid conscious- 
ness of the relation of language to his own and to other 
minds. Hence, some study of the intention of nature to 
combine diverse elements of revelation is necessary to 
enable the student to grasp a special form of language. 
It is a well-known fact that a dramatic writer absolutely 
requires some such experience; but it is not only true of 



60 The Problem. 

him, it is true of the novel writer, and every writer who 
wishes to move effectively the soul of man. For the 
speaker to neglect such work is absolute folly. 

From all this discussion we can see something of the 
many-sided character of expression, but when we come to 
look at the experience of men, we find the same com- 
plexity. Man is just as capable of emotion as he is of 
thought. In fact, some able masters of psychology 
contend that no thought is complete without its proper 
complement of emotion. If this is true in nature, it 
must be true in expression, and no mere verbal expres- 
sion manifesting the thought can be complete without its 
vocal accompaniment manifesting the emotion. Every 
truth we find has associated experience. This experience 
is not a mere adjunct, is not a mere associate of the truth, 
but it is the very life and soul of the truth. One of 
the most fundamental characteristics of all great poets 
and artists is what has been called by Dowden " consen- 
taneity of thought and feeling." 

An important distinction has been made between fact 
and truth. Fact is the mere external body, truth implies 
the soul. Ordinary histories give us the facts regarding 
the heroes of Scotland for example, but the real spirit 
that animates these heroes is only presented to us in 
works of art like the novels of Sir Walter Scott. The 
mere facts of English history are given in the ordinary 
historical books, but the spirit, the truth of Richard III, 
of Henry IV, of King John, has never been so well 
presented as by Shakespeare. The Duke of Marl- 
borough said he had read no English history but that 
written by Shakespeare. The highest art uses few facts 
and these in such a way as to awaken the co-ordinate 
experience. Writing is great in proportion as there is 
such a suggestion as will rouse the experience which is 



Kinds of Expression. 61 

the hidden soul of the truth uttered. So in delivery, 
verbal expression, of course, deals more with facts, the 
other forms of expression with experience. When all 
three of the languages combine as nature intended, then 
only, can man reveal the depths of his soul. Emotion 
arises in obedience to the stimulation of an idea or situa- 
tion, and there is a tendency with every idea or phantasm, 
as Aristotle called it, for emotion to respond. Facts can 
be given by words alone, but when an idea stirs feeling 
and experience as it does in nature, the other languages 
of man must reveal these, if they are revealed at all. 

A man may read the words, "The Lord is my Shep- 
herd, I shall not want," in such a way as to clearly con- 
vey the thought, but at the same time give the impression 
that it is a very disagreeable and painful experience that 
has led him to speak. Thus one of the most beautiful 
compositions ever penned can be read in such a way as to 
convey the impression of dry facts, or of a struggle to 
get them. Of course when so read the real truth is not 
told, for the essential idea of the psalm is one of expe- 
rience. It is simply a record of experience. It is the 
verbal embodiment, or using the figure of Humboldt, it is 
an endeavor by the author to verbally embalm his experi- 
ence. If the reader does not assimilate and bring to life 
again that experience through imagination and sympathy, 
he is not possessed of the real truth of the poem, and of 
course cannot manifest it. And if he kills out, from 
false ideas of language or evil training, all the natural 
means of manifesting such experience, what wonder if all 
is cold and dead. A still worse fault is of course intro- 
ducing the wrong experience, but repressing the right 
experience is the quickest road to such perversion. 

To secure the highest possible expression, the whole 
nature of the man must be aroused, and all his languages 



'62 The Problem. 

must be brought into use in order to convey the whole 
truth. The presentation of the truth must ever be the 
aim of expression; not merely the abstract facts, which 
may be regarded as the external body of the truth, but 
the spirit must be brought back to life. He must not 
only convey a correct impression of the truth itself, but a 
correct impression of the relationship of that truth to the 
human soul. Otherwise, in the most important sense, he 
is untrue, for the worst falsehood is often a half truth. 
It is better that men should not have truth conveyed to 
them than that it should be conveyed in such a way as to 
inspire contempt and hatred. When an orator speaks of 
some infinite danger in a tone of indifference, not only is 
no one awakened to the danger, but actual indifference is 
induced in his audience. It would have been far better 
for his hearers and for his cause, had he never spoken at 
all, for he has dulled every susceptibility to truth. 

Possibly to tell men a part of the truth, to give an 
abstract, or a mere outline of the facts, without giving 
any of their relations to the human soul, may answer 
many of the purposes of science and scientific instruc- 
tion, but in the great practical work of instructing the 
untaught, of awakening man to rescue his brother in 
danger, of inspiring man to a higher life, it is powerless. 
Oratory goes farther than mere instruction. It seeks to 
rouse the latent energies of men, it seeks to make men 
realize the outcome of a certain course of action, it seeks 
to give men phases of experience belonging to the higher 
faculties of the soul, so as to awake nobler motives and 
dispositions. 

Art is the interpretive presentation of nature, and the 
great characteristic of nature is its plenitude. Nature 
does not do things one-sidedly or abstractly. One-sided- 
ness in art is the worst of falsehoods, and this is espe- 



Kinds of Expression. 63 

cially true in oratory. The aim of all oratory is to 
incarnate truth, to translate the mystic into something 
manifest, to translate the abstract into such a concrete 
form as will cause it to be felt in all its relations to 
human thought and human activity. It is to present 
truth in all its relations to the experience of personality. 
Such a province can never be fulfilled by confounding art 
with science, oratory with mere instruction, or without 
meeting every need and every requirement for the perfect 
manifestation not only of the truth, but of the comple- 
ment of truth in experience, and thus awaken the dispo- 
sition to receive the truth. If truth absolutely requires a 
complement of experience, expression of that truth requires 
that its embodiment should be complemented by a vocal 
and a pantomimic language manifesting the experience. 

Thus we see that expression is complex and belongs to 
the whole man, and that its complexity is in correspond- 
ence with the complexity of the experience of the soul. 
We see also, that the complex elements of language have 
normally as complete and perfect unity as the psychic 
conditions which they are intended to manifest. We 
also find that without complete co-ordination and co-oper- 
ation of these various languages an adequate and truthful 
manifestation of the experience of the soul is not possible. 
Thus we can draw an inference as to what is the end of 
all work for improving expression. It must in some way 
develop and bring into unity all the faculties concerned 
in expression, and must train the individual power, and 
bring into co-operation all the languages of man accord- 
ing to their intended functions, in order to reveal truth- 
fully and adequately the possessions of the soul, so as to 
cause them to be truthfully realized by others. 



IV. 

EXPRESSION AND PERSONALITY. 

" Man can give nothing to his fellow-man but himself." 

— Schlegel. 

If such is the character of expression, if it is not the 
result of any process of aggregation, not a matter of mere 
manner, if it is a manifestation of the subjective, if it is 
manifold and complex, and its complexity corresponds 
with the nature and complexity of the faculties and 
powers of the mind, then there must be a very intimate 
relation between expression and the real nature of man. 
If we look again at some of the most common misconcep- 
tions of the nature of expression we shall find many of 
them take their rise from some misconception of the 
relationship between expression and personality. 

Let us take the two greatest faults in delivery. In one 
of these the man may be really in earnest, may feel to 
the depths of his soul the importance of the thought in 
relation to others, but from a misconception he may 
polish down his delivery — his mode of presenting his 
truth — until nothing but the smooth, delicate finish is 
manifest to his fellow-men. The real character of the 
man, the depth and intensity of his nature, even the 
impression produced upon his own soul by the truth, is 
not revealed in the delivery. All that can be seen and 
noted is the skillful use of certain actions, vocal or physi- 
cal, and in general an endeavor not to do anything to 
offend the taste of his audience. His delivery is fault- 
less, his elocution perfect, but still you feel that its very 
perfection conceals the personality of the man. When a 



Expression and Personality. 65 

great occasion arises you prefer to see him make some 
mistake, if such a blunder can show that the activities 
of the soul transcend the activities of the body, for mere 
mechanical perfection is inconsistent with life. 

On the other hand a man may be genuinely in earnest, 
may have a real love for his fellow-men, a deep apprecia- 
tion of the truth, but on account of the misuse of the 
means of expression, he may manifest it in such a hard 
tone, or with such abnormal movements that these inter- 
vene between his own character and the truth and the 
audience, in such a way as to call the whole attention of 
his hearers to his delivery. If a man tries to manifest 
love with clenched fists pounding on the desk, or sym- 
pathy in a tone of anger, or affectionate pleading in an 
attitude of antagonism, his delivery is fundamentally 
untruthful. It hinders rather than bears witness to the 
truth, if indeed it does not absolutely deny the spirit of 
the truth which is uttered. The bad habit of the man 
stands out before his audience more prominently than 
anything else, and his real character and feeling on the 
occasion is not revealed. 

In both of these cases it is taken for granted that the 
man really feels and has a proper possession of the truth ; 
but actually this is rarely the case, for misuse of any of 
the languages soon or late perverts the pure fountain of 
ideas and feeling from which they flow. 

While these two faults seem to be directly in oppo- 
sition to each other, really they have something of kin- 
ship. In each case the revelation of the thought and 
feeling of the speaker is hindered. The attention of the 
audience is distracted and more or less drawn from the 
truth itself and obstructed by, if not centred upon, some- 
thing which should be transparent. The perfection of all 
expression must be due to the transparency of person- 



66 The Problem. 

ality. There must be a perfect manifestation of the 
conditions and activities of the spirit and character of 
the man, and whatever really improves delivery more 
intimately unites delivery to the soul. 

The fundamental cause of nearly all faults in delivery 
is a failure to properly assimilate truth. One of the most 
common forms of this difficulty is that the thought is 
merely aggregated and does not enter into the system 
and become a vital part of the man. What the speaker 
says seems to come merely from the head. It seems to 
have been merely acquired for the occasion. We feel 
that the man is merely performing, though he is uncon- 
scious of it. , He has felt that he must speak* and has 
prepared something to say. But this something is the 
mere thought of his mind and has no vital relationship to 
the deep emotions and conditions of his being. Rarely 
do we feel that the man himself really speaks. How 
frequently do we hear a speaker whom we know to be 
good and what he says to be true, yet we feel that in his 
delivery the two do not come together ; that they do not 
co-ordinate in expression as nature intended. Sometimes 
a man's words seem to be merely his creed or the doc- 
trine of his church, or to be acquired from books, so that 
all he says seem only intellectual abstractions. Some- 
times we feel that what is said is merely for party pur- 
poses and is not the living presentation of the experience 
underlying the whole structure of his character and man- 
hood, and which has been awakened by the ideas he reveals. 

The real problem of delivery, therefore, is how to 
reveal thought and experience, not how to make this little 
inflection or that little gesture ; not how to polish most 
beautifully our manner so as not in the least to offend 
the most conventional audience; not how to please and 
entertain nor how to soothe gently into slumber ; not how 



Expression and Personality. 67 

to acquire such skill as will enable us to stir feeling 
without having any ourselves ; but how to reveal the real 
character of the man with what is said ; how to show 
truthfully the life of the soul. No external coaching, no 
mere study about what the man has to do with his voice 
and his body, can furnish a substitute for that which can 
only be produced by the direct impulse of a living soul. 

Men have always spoken of artistic instinct and of dra- 
matic instinct. From time immemorial the artist has been 
considered to be inspired. Homer and the poets since 
his day have invoked their muse. The truth of this old 
idea of the muse is, that when anything artistic is done it 
always seems to be given to the artist. It seems to come 
to him. In the old days the muse seemed to stand at 
his side and whisper in his ear. Here is a great truth 
put into the form of poetry. For the goddess that sings 
to the artist is his subjective soul — the artistic semi- 
conscious instinct, awakening and realizing and revealing 
the mystic side of truth. 

This artistic instinct is a response in the harmonious 
co-ordination of all the faculties of our nature toward the 
production of one whole. The greatest hindrance in the 
world to expression is one-sidedness. A man whose 
intellect alone responds to truth can never make an ora- 
tor, because he never can have any oratoric instinct. On 
the other hand, one whose feelings alone respond, inde- 
pendent of intellect, can never become an orator, because 
blind feeling will lead him completely astray and make 
him ridiculous. It is only when thought and emotion, 
balanced by will, simultaneously respond to the truth so 
as to bring directly all the languages of man into unity, 
that true oratory is possible. 

Unity is the fundamental law of all art, and in oratory 
it never can be obtained except through co-ordination of 



68 The Problem. 

impulse, reason, feeling and volition, of the conscious 
and the unconscious in one simultaneous outflow through 
all the natural as well as artificial languages of man. 

It will aid us in tracing this subject more adequately to 
its fundamental elements to return once more to the 
misconceptions of art, and to look at the relation of all 
art to personality. 

We have had in all ages and in every department of 
art two schools. One of these believes that poetry is 
mere rhythm ; that its beauty is primarily a beauty of 
sound and only secondarily of sense. The other believes 
that poetry is primarily sense, and that sound and rhythm 
are only means of manifestation. The one regards art as 
a matter of technique ; the other regards art as a means 
of revealing the fundamental impressions and conditions 
of the soul. One says the most stormy passages of 
music may be written when the composer is in a mood 
of complete indifference ; and on the other hand we find 
Beethoven walking around Vienna with a soul on fire 
catching the mystic undertone of all he heard. In short, 
we find one who believes that art is only technical skill, 
and the farther the art from human experience and char- 
acter the better — that he is the greatest artist who can 
produce the greatest effect with the least possible feeling 
himself; and we find another who says that there can 
be no great impersonal art, that art is in its very nature 
the embodiment of man's understanding of the mystic 
problems of the universe, the revelation of the impres- 
sions which have been made upon his soul. 

There is a growing tendency at the present time in all 
departments of art to trace the connections between the 
character of the artist and his work. A striking instance 
of this tendency is the thorough study that has been 
made of the life of Shakespeare. The great desire of the 



Expression and Personality. 69 

world for facts regarding his life has caused the lovers of 
his art to search into every nook and corner for vague 
hints regarding the influences that moulded the man and 
his art ; but as few facts could be found, great critics dur- 
ing the past fifty years have examined more thoroughly 
than ever into the depths of his plays, establishing as far 
as possible the dates at which they were written. They 
have studied his whole life in connection with these plays 
and out of this has also come a more thorough study of 
the nature of his art. 

Shakespeare's career as an artist lasts over a period 
of twenty years, usually divided by critics into four peri- 
ods, which have been called by Dowden : " In the Work 
Shop," "In the World," "Out of the Depths," "On the 
Heights." In the first period Shakespeare is found not 
to be complete master of his art ; he seems to fear his 
art. In this period he is struggling and is, no doubt, 
uncertain of success ; his plays are the exact mirror of 
such conditions of life. In his second period Shakespeare 
is filled with patriotism and ambition, and his plays are 
more melodramatic. In this period Shakespeare has 
won great friends, is successful and happy, and we 
have the great comedies written. In the third period 
he passes into the depths of gloom. He suffers evi- 
dently, either for his own sins or the sins of others. 
In this period were written the tragedies which are the 
highest productions of human genius — Macbeth, King 
Lear, Othello and Hamlet. His period of greatest suffer- 
ing is, according to most critics, the period of his great- 
est art. But in this condition of sorrow Shakespeare 
does not remain. In his last period we have the peace- 
fulness of age. "The Tempest," "Cymbeline" and the 
"Winter's Tale," his last plays, breathe with forgiveness 
and love. They have romantic subjects; he seems to 



JO The Problem. 

rise to a more ideal world. Even the villain Iachimo is 
reclaimed ; and Shakespeare with his own Prospero lays 
aside the magic cloak of his art at peace with all mankind. 
Another illustration is the correspondence of Prince 
Henry, afterward Henry V., to Shakespeare himself. 
Some contend that but for the experience of his own 
struggles and efforts, Shakespeare could never have 
painted this wonderful character. There are some critics- 
who are still skeptical upon sundry points, but the majority 
are agreed, and the discussion affords one of the most: 
wonderful of all illustrations of the connection between 
personality and art. It proves that the art of Shake- 
speare, the greatest of all time, is no external show, 
no objective exhibition entirely independent of himself. 
Though he is according to Browning, our most object- 
ive poet, yet in this greatest artist through all his plays 
we come closest to the soul, we feel his convictions, 
his earnestness, as well as his great insight into the 
human heart. As Professor Corson has said, "We know 
Shakespeare — or he can be known, if the requisite con- 
ditions are met — better, perhaps, than any other great 
author that ever lived — know, in the deepest sense of the 
word, in a sense other than that which we know Dr. John- 
son, through Boswell's Biography. The moral proportion 
which is so signal a characteristic of his plays could not 
have been imparted to them by the conscious intellect. 
It was shed from his spiritual constitution." Why? 
Because his power in expression was as perfect as has yet 
been accorded to man. For this reason, though Johnson 
had a most painstaking Boswell, who lived with him, 
understood him thoroughly, and wrote a biography which 
has been one of the books of the greatest interest in 
modern times, yet to-day we know Shakespeare, even as 
a man, better than we know Johnson. We do not know, 



Expression and Personality. 71 

of course, the facts of Shakespeare's life so well, we do 
not know quite so well how he was esteemed by those 
who lived with him. All the facts we know about him 
might be placed upon a few pages, but his personality 
shines through his work, even through his plays. We 
feel the moral grandeur of the man, his insight into 
human nature, his grand moral proportions, his intuitions, 
impulses and ideals ; and these are the greatest part of 
the man and form the foundation of his character. 

Some oppose this idea and ask why we should not 
regard Shelley's or Browning's villains as expressive of 
the personal character of their authors. To which it can 
be answered that the character of these authors is shown 
more clearly in the way they paint villains than in any 
other way. Shakespeare in Falstaff shows his moral 
rectitude as well as in Henry V. He could have treated 
Falstaff with cant and bigotry or with sympathy with his 
sin. Like many modern French authors, or even Eng- 
lish dramatists of his age, he might have justified Fal- 
staff' s sin. But such degradation is never found in 
Shakespeare. The immoral, when treated by him is 
given with moral truthfulness, thus showing the essential 
rectitude and nobility of his own character. 

Again others answer in another way, and consider that 
they have proved that art has connection wholly with 
imagination and not with character, by asking the ques- 
tion "Was the personality of Shelley noble?" Shelley is 
the best illustration of the fact that art is more inti- 
mately related to the character of the artist than any 
other mode of expression. Shelley in his essays has been 
shown by many critics to be a different man from what 
he is in his poetry. In his Defence of Atheism or 
Essay upon Christianity, we see his intellectual views, 
his prejudices. We see that phase of his character which 



72 The Problem. 

was the result of circumstances, persecutions and miscon- 
ceptions. In his Prometheus Unbound, we feel what he 
desired the world to be. Here we meet his faith and 
hope ; the beautiful soul that was revealed -otherwise only 
to a few sympathetic friends is made manifest to the 
world. Here the real man is revealed truthfully though 
unconsciously and indirectly through his art. 

True art does not reveal a man's opinions so much as 
it does the man himself. When men speak frankly and 
directly through words, there is a one-sided expression of 
the mere opinions of the man ; the deeper motives, con- 
ditions, aspirations and faith which are the real soul 
of the man cannot be manifested except through co- 
ordinate modes of revelation — that is, through art. 

The common idea is, that dramatic poetry is an object- 
ive form of art ; that the dramatic poet completely 
buries his personality, simply talks through another char- 
acter, and hence his own character is entirely distinct 
from his art. ■ While there is an element of truth in this, 
yet the revelation of the author's real feeling, though 
indirect and possibly unconscious, is the more effective. 
Browning deliberately chooses the dramatic monologue 
as the highest means of manifesting the deepest feelings 
and experiences of the soul. He hides himself as much 
as possible,- but this hiding of his direct opinions causes 
a truer revelation of the deeper dispositions and spirit of 
the man. 

And this principle applies to all the arts. Painting is 
said to be one of the most tell-tale of all arts, and there is 
no form of art, however objective it may be, that does not 
reveal the subjective character of him who executes it. 

Mr. Enneking when he went to study in Munich found 
the class which he desired to enter full, but he was 
allowed to stand behind the students and look on. While 



Expression and Personality. 73 

waiting for a vacancy he fell to studying the work of the 
class as they were drawing from the same model. While 
doing so he discovered that all the tall members of the 
class were drawing the figure tall, while the short mem- 
bers of the class were drawing the figure short. Those 
with long noses made a long nose in their drawing. In 
every case the physical peculiarities of each artist were 
reflected in his drawing from the same model, though all 
were striving to be accurate. 

This fact in art has been attested by many observers ; 
and this physical reflection is merely an indication of a 
deeper one. The emotions, experience and character of 
the artist mould his work far more than his physical 
traits and peculiarities. 

There is still another important confirmation of the 
relation of art to character. We find in history that the 
degradation of art of all kinds, in every age, has started 
with a tendency toward mere technique, toward the 
separation of art from its revelation of the subjective 
activities of the soul. The pupils of Raphael descended 
merely to copying his delicacy of color and the peculiari- 
ties of his technique. In their study of the master's tone 
and beauty, they lost the thought and the depth of soul 
which he struggled to manifest. 

In many departments of art at the present time we 
note a similar tendency. Then very careful should the 
young student be who begins the study of any art. But 
especially ought there to be caution in the study of ora- 
tory or dramatic art. For evil tendencies in art have 
always shown themselves in histrionic art first of all. 
In this field evil seed has ever seemed to fall first, and to 
produce here the quickest and most abundant harvest. 

Students of dramatic art only wish to know "the busi- 
ness " of a part or of a play. How little there is of deep 



74 The Problem. 

meditation, absorbing thought, despairing efforts for new 
conceptions, for inspiration, for the noble "accident" 
which comes seemingly of itself, yet only comes after 
long-continued and oft-repeated effort ! 

Again, the higher a work of art the more intimately is 
it connected with human character and experience. A 
play of Shakespeare brings us far nearer, not only to the 
personality of the writer, but also to the personalities of 
history, than any other record. Hamlet is not a history,, 
it is a work of art, and hence it is a revelation of the 
conceptions of one human soul regarding other human 
souls, struggling amid the problems of life. There is a 
distinction between the history of the times of Henry V. 
and Shakespeare's revelation of that character. We have 
more facts in one, but we have more truth in the other. 
We have more external relations in one, but we have 
more soul and life in the other. Without art it may well- 
be said that the greatest depths of personality cannot be 
revealed to our fellow-men. A great work of art may 
enable a man to conceal the facts of his life, but all the 
more it reveals the character and depths of his experi- 
ence. A reader of Robertson's sermons never finds a 
word regarding the mere events of his life or regarding 
the peculiar trials through which he, as an individual, was 
passing, but the great experiences of his life are felt 
everywhere. We do not read the mere facts, these are 
given in his letters ; but we do find the truth and charac- 
ter of the man. 

Now if all this is true in such arts as painting and 
poetry, how much more must it be true in delivery. The 
artist must depend upon artificial means, and it may seem 
plausible that his art should be entirely independent of 
his soul. But there ought to be no doubt in the case of 
a speaker or a reader, who must do all through his own 



Expression and Personality. 75 

organism. There is no external brush, there are no pig- 
ments and combinations of color which can be scientific- 
ally applied. That art which is most intimately associ- 
ated with nature must show the most intimate connection 
between personality and art. Oratory has been defined 
as a "presentation of truth by personality," and from 
even the artificial Quintillian, who said that an orator was 
"a good man speaking well," to the greatest orators of 
our own times, this truth has ever been recognized. 

It will make clearer the relation of personality to deliv- 
ery if we study some views of art as given us by its 
greatest interpreter in modern times. Browning regards 
art as the only adequate way of telling the truth. One 
soul can never reveal adequately to another its concep- 
tion of the highest ideals except by suggesting them 
through the medium of art. " Our human speech is 
naught, our human testimony false," he says, but art, 
in which, man does not speak to men but to mankind, 
may teach a truth obliquely, may "do the thing shall 
breed the thought." In ordinary speech, though we may 
tell the truth it appears false to the one to whom we 
speak it ; and it is only by art that the spirit that reveals 
the impression can be awakened in the breast of another. 

Through the study of art, men have found that each 
sees something different in the world. As some one has 
said, "men see nothing but what they are." According 
to Browning, art not only expresses the thought or the 
truth, but discharges a still more important office, it 
awakens the disposition to receive that truth. 

To explain this more clearly, let us examine an extract 
from one of his earlier works : 

" Truth is within ourselves ; it takes no rise 
From outward things, .... and ' to know ' 
Rather consists in opening out a way 



y6 The Problem. 

Whence the imprisoned splendour ma,y escape, 
Than in effecting entry for a light 
Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly. 
The demonstration of a truth, its birth, 
And you trace back the effluence to its spring 
And source within us, where broods radiance vast, 
To be elicited ray by ray, as chance shall favour." 

If all truth comes from within, true expression must do 
more than give mere bare external facts. There must 
be some suggestion to awaken activity within. For one 
soul to convey truth to another adequately, requires a 
complex co-ordination and suggestion, in order to quicken 
the subjective activity in many directions. Thus, and 
thus only, the soul of man can be awakened to truth. 
Art is the only power given to a human being to awaken 
the conscious and unconscious impulses of another soul, 
and to cause it to create and realize truth from within. 
Unless the thing can be done that shall "breed the 
thought," shall cause the thought to germinate in the 
depths of the soul, the truth is not felt and realized, in 
fact it is not understood. Unless this process is stimu- 
lated even the greatest truth presented to man will 
appear like falsehood. 

Thus art is a necessity of human nature. It is not 
only intimately connected with personality, but is abso- 
lutely necessary to the growth of personality. Without 
the endeavor to execute, without the endeavor to embody 
the good beyond him, man cannot grow toward that good, 
and reveal the apprehensions and experiences of his soul 
to others. Thus art is no mere skill in technique, no 
mere superficial polish, no mere amusement, but is most 
deeply intertwined with the human soul and is its only 
means of manifestation. It is that which shows man to 
be made in the image of his God, without which he can- 
not grow nor his nature achieve its ideal. 



Expression and Personality. J J 

Now all this especially explains the function and the 
nature of true delivery. The aim of all expression, the 
aim of all delivery, is to " do the thing shall breed the 
thought." Thought uttered merely by one language, or 
through its symbols, appears false, appears cold and life- 
less, but when the associated experience is simultane- 
ously manifested through the natural languages, when the 
emotions, the earnestness, the sympathy and all phases of 
personality bearing any relation to the truth are simul- 
taneously revealed, then the proper attitude for the 
reception of the truth is engendered in the heart of the 
hearer. At the same moment that the intellect and 
understanding become awake to the ideas of the mystic, 
the unconscious activities of the soul are awakened to the 
living reception of the spirit, which lies deeper than the 
ideas. Only when this requirement is fulfilled do we 
have presented to us a true example of a powerful deliv- 
ery — one in accord with nature's intentions. 

True the speaker's character may be concealed by a 
certain kind of work in expression. Mere polish may 
hide the depths of his soul and call attention merely 
to the outside, thus hiding his real nature. But such 
art is false — false to the soul and to truth. It is 
worse than sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, nor has 
it ever, nor can it ever stir the depths of the human 
heart. To any one with an eye to see or ear to hear, the 
first impression received will be that of affectation. Nor 
can it, in fact, ever be characteristic of a strong man. 
Such work soon or late will enervate and dwarf the power 
of the greatest soul. 

If we believe that there is an element of art that is 
"shed from personality," as the light from the sun, how 
much more must this be true of delivery. Certainly 
man's living languages in their complex relationship, each 



78 Tfie Problem. 

discharging a specific function, yet all working together 
in perfect unity, reveal the character and soul of the man, 
though more transiently yet more directly and more ade- 
quately than any form of human art. 

Of course some one will say, all this applies to oratoric 
delivery but it has nothing to do with public reading or 
acting. But the same principle holds true. All who 
have looked into the kindly eyes of Henry Irving — the 
inspiration of vast numbers of his fellow -artists — enjoy 
his representation of the arch hypocrite, Louis XL 
the more intensely because they know the character 
he portrays is entirely foreign to his own. His intui- 
tive insight enables him to understand the subtlety and 
greatness of Louis, and his own noble character enables 
him to accentuate more strongly the powerful elements 
of the royal murderer. A man who is in daily practise 
of a sin can not artistically present a character in corre- 
spondence with his own, because we know ourselves 
less than we know any one else. He would be uncon- 
scious of the real perversion in the character. Such per- 
version must be seen and appreciated with respect to an 
ideal before there can be true expression. An artist 
, must be deeply conscious of the right and the wrong, or 
he can accent neither. This is why one who has been 
thoroughly tempted and has conquered is enabled to 
express more effectively a wider range of characters. 

A bad man is limited to one type of characters. A 
man may do bad deeds occasionally, but have continual 
struggles and aspirations after what is right and be ena- 
bled to manifest noble characters at times ; but this only 
proves the principle. 

It has been plainly shown that there is not one 
Hamlet, but as many Hamlets as there have been actors 
who have played the part well. If Hamlet were given 



Expression and Personality. 79 

alike "by all actors the art would be absolutely false. 
When we see the same character taken by two actors it 
is a most effective revelation of the characters of the two 
men. The difference is chiefly a difference of personality. 

In the light of such principles how utterly frivolous 
appears the widespread notion that a speaker who has 
■good delivery must have poor thought ; that an elocution- 
ist, a reader or an actor need not be an educated man ; 
that expression is the product of special "aptitude, the 
result of birth and not of training," and which may be 
present with a high degree of efficiency while in other 
respects the mind may be very weak. In fact, that an 
actor or a public reader is necessarily a man of low men- 
tal calibre. How such an absolutely false conception 
should be so widely diffused is a wonder. As a matter of 
fact all histrionic art at the present time is in a low con- 
dition. There are few educated men who have real 
intuition, few who have a real culture of their artistic 
nature, and an adequate conception of the dignity of their 
work, so that possibly the idea is due to observation. 

Of all uninteresting performances in this world, the 
mere repetition or recitation of words is absolutely the 
tamest. To bring out a truth in poetry there must be 
insight. Lovers of true poetry are dissatisfied with the 
histrionic art of our day. It is only an Irving that can 
bring an educated audience to the theatre. Our public 
readers choose, as a rule, to feed the lower tastes and 
appeal with their imitative modulations to the ignorant. 
All who love true literature feel sympathy with a certain 
teacher who went home sorrowfully after spending an 
evening at an entertainment given by one of the leading 
elocutionists of this country, saying that it was a great 
grief to him that a man of such talents should degrade 
his art by rendering such selections. 



80 The Problem. 

If all this is true, how deeply must all feel that in all 
expression that is to do more than merely tickle the 
fancy, the soul must act. It is the activities of the deep- 
est and most fundamental powers of human nature which 
interest men most deeply, and which stir them most 
effectively. Expression is not a mere vocal jugglery; it 
is not a mere feat of the articulating organs ; not a dis- 
play of beautiful tones; it is essentially a mental act — an 
act of the deepest forces of the soul, truthfully mani- 
fested through the natural languages of the body. It is 
the soul held up as a mirror to nature, and a mirror also 
to that in nature which is the deepest and grandest of all 
its phases — human experience and human character. 

Is delivery the mere acquirement of a few external 
rules and a few superficial graces of manner, and above 
all can it do this merely as some adjunct, independent of 
greatness of character? If this is not true of the object- 
ive arts, how can it be true of a subjective one? Expres- 
sion unites music — the highest art, according to Hegel — 
and sculpture and painting. If it is not a union of all the 
arts, it brings into action their most fundamental modes 
for the revelation of living character. If art is an agency 
of personality, this which brings into co-ordination all 
man's fundamental languages cannot occupy a low place. 
And if oratory is the most direct conscious and uncon- 
scious revelation of soul to soul, there must necessarily 
be behind it a great artist — a soul broad enough and 
deep enough to " speak not merely to men but also to 
mankind." 

Thus we see that oratory can not be separated from 
character. But on the other hand when it is represented 
as being wholly a matter of character a great mistake is 
made. For as the personality of the artist determines 
the treatment of his subject in art, but does not necessi- 



Expression and Personality. 81 

tate that his art shall truthfully manifest that personality, 
so, though the character of the orator gives the cause of 
the oration, this does not necessitate that his delivery 
shall truthfully manifest his character. A man's charac- 
ter may be belied by his delivery. We have found that 
expression is an artistic, sympathetic co-ordination of all 
the languages belonging to man, so as to simultaneously 
reveal, not only what he thinks, but what he feels, and 
what he is; that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word should be established." The character of the 
man depends for its most effective revelation upon the 
testimony of these various witnesses, and if any one of 
them bears false witness there is not only confusion but 
untruthfulness in the expression. The character should 
be revealed and not concealed or belied by the delivery. 
The character must not only exist in the man, but his 
auditor must feel and see it in his tones and actions. 
His delivery must spring spontaneously from this charac- 
ter and be an intrinsic part of the oration. 



V. 



EXPRESSION AND EMOTION. 

. . . . Si vis me flere dolendum est 
Primum ipsi tibi. — Horace. 

The intimate relation of personality to expression 
brings us to another question often discussed during the 
last few years. How far does the speaker, the reader or 
the actor really feel the emotion and experience which he 
is called upon to manifest ? How much of his nature and 
what sets of faculties are active ? Is expression the prod- 
uct of reason, of will or of emotion, or of all the faculties 
and powers of the soul ? 

The most important misconception of the relation of 
experience to expression may be called the mechanical or 
intellectual view. This view was formulated and advo- 
cated by Diderot in his famous Paradox published about 
one hundred years ago. He was the first, as far as 
known, to contend that sensibility and passion are ene- 
mies to expression ; that the possession of real passion is 
ridiculous ; that all great oratory and acting is simply an 
act of the intellect and reason ; the less feeling the 
better. "Sensibility," he says, "cripples the intellect at 
the very time when the man needs all his self-posses- 
sion." "Feeling is the disposition which accompanies 
organic weakness." He held that the orator can never 
produce any effect except from direct and careful calcula- 
tion beforehand, and without allowing himself to be 
trammeled by feeling at the time he speaks. Some 
modern writers on the subject say that a man cannot 
afford to have genuine emotion, that it would wear him 



Expression and Emotion. 8$ 

out, that he must be entirely concerned with giving the 
"signs of emotion," that he is an artist in proportion as 
he can give these without having feeling, and that he can 
only have "symptomatic emotion," or the effect produced 
upon his nervous system by the assumption of such 
signs. This discussion has been revived during the last 
few years by M. Coquelin and by Mr. Henry Irving. 
Mr. Archer, in his "Masks or Faces," has gathered the 
testimony and experience of. the greatest living artists, 
and with few exceptions all have agreed with Mr. Irving 
against Coquelin and the Paradox. 

It is necessary to give some attention to this subject 
here, because this view has taken deep hold of the 
elocutionary methods of our times. Stated in its bald- 
est form few elocutionists would probably acknowledge 
it, yet as a matter of fact, nearly all the methods for 
the development of delivery are influenced by it, if 
they are not in conscious accord with its teaching. 
Many teachers boldly avow that feeling is none of their 
business. "We are only concerned," they say, "with 
the signs of emotion, the modulation of the voice, and 
the actions of the body, their development and proper 
use." The firm though unconscious hold which the 
Diderot view has upon this age is shown in the fact that 
many teachers of literature condemn all manifestation of 
emotion. "Bring out the thought" is continually heard, 
"have nothing to do with feeling." It is considered by 
many unscholarly to show feeling, as if thought were sep- 
arate from emotion. Strange to say the discussion of the 
subject connected with acting is in advance of that in 
relation to public speaking and the rendering of literature. 

It would seem that of all artists in the world public 
speakers would be the least affected by the mechanical 
view of Diderot. Yet, strange to say, it is in relation to 



84 The Problem. 

public speaking, in America at least, that the theory 
seems to have the firmest hoid ; at least, the only book 
published in English to justify a similar theory is a work 
by Nathan Sheppard, entitled " Before an Audience." 
The views of this book have been advocated by many 
speakers. It is a very inconsistent work, the author 
sneering at elocution as well as at feeling. He out- 
diderots Diderot, as he holds that the whole secret of 
delivery is will. Feeling is nothing, abandonment is the 
greatest folly. This view professes to be founded on 
personal experience ; he says, " If I had taken the com- 
mon advice and 'forgotten myself,' I would have lost 
myself and my bread and butter." To him "delivery 
may be natural and yet be wrong," he has no faith in 
nature. He does not of course say that intellect is a 
hinderance, as Diderot says of feeling ; but he implies it, 
for to him all is will. In the baldest form he says, " If 
you wish to move your audience simply do it." Practi- 
cally he says, thought is nothing, feeling is nothing, 
simply have an intention and execute it by the direct 
force of will, that is the whole secret. 

A third misconception makes emotion the sole cause 
of expression. The ranter rises before his audience with 
no thought, and endeavors to force himself into a state of 
feeling which will carry all before him. An American 
actress works herself up into a state of almost hysterical 
emotion strong enough to carry her through the perform- 
ance of her part with all the real force of nature. The 
emotion according to this view must not only be genuine, 
but must be of sufficient force to compel expression as it 
does in life. The whole situation must be as real to the 
person as if it were actually happening. The speaker 
must be driven by uncontrollable emotion to the proper 
modes of expression. 



Expression and Emotion. 85 

All these three views are incorrect, because they are 
one-sided. They overlook the nature of the human mind 
and its relation to the various languages. Nearly all that 
Diderot has said about the intellect as intellect may be 
accepted, but when he tries to make intellect a substitute 
for emotion he violates a universal principle of nature. 
He advocates an error which has been a curse to all 
modern histrionic art and oratoric delivery; directly 
or indirectly it is this view which has poisoned all our 
elocutionary methods. It is no doubt very important 
that the will should be active in speaking, and here and 
there in Mr. Sheppard's book there is a grain of good 
sense. The error, as before, is the one-sided, exagger- 
ated emphasis of one phase of human nature in delivery. 
Man is not mere will. Of all weak men, of all men who 
are unattractive, the man who has no feeling, no thought, 
but only a stubborn will, is the worst. Yet this seems 
to be Mr. Sheppard's highest ideal. To him such an 
abnormal phenomenon makes a histrionic artist and espe- 
cially an orator. The emotional theory is more ridicu- 
lous than the others and so corrects itself; besides few 
believe in it. It also is abnormal because it is one-sided. 
Expression if it is normal and effective must be the reve- 
lation of the whole mind ; the thought and the emotion 
must both be genuine and balanced by will, and while 
each may be separated in analysis, yet all are so thor- 
oughly united in consciousness that it is not always 
possible for the artist himself to distinguish them. The 
intellect must be so active that there will be self-posses- 
sion ; the head must be cool, but the heart must be warm. 
As Mr. Irving has so well said, "It is quite possible to 
feel all the excitement of the situation and yet be per- 
fectly self-possessed. This is art which the actor who 
loses his head has not mastered. It is necessary to this 



86 The Problem. 

art that the mind should have, as it were, a double con- 
sciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the 
occasion may have full sway, while the actor is all the 
time on the alert for every detail of his method." 

Since these one-sided views furnish an important ele- 
ment in preventing the adoption of adequate methods for 
the development of delivery, it may be well to consider 
the subject more carefully and to study something of 
the nature of emotion. 

From the time of Aristotle emotion has been consid- 
ered as arising first from nature — that is, from an object 
of sense — or secondly, from an idea, or, as Aristotle 
called it, a phantasm. When a public speaker relates 
a story or describes a scene emotion is the result not 
of what he sees before him, but of the images in his- 
mind. There was an ancient custom still sometimes 
resorted to in modern times, to bring the wife and chil- 
dren of a criminal into court in order to awaken the 
sympathy of the jury; but in most cases the emotion is 
awakened by an imaginary picture or a remembered scene. 

What difference is there between emotion arising from 
a real scene and the emotion stimulated by an imaginary 
situation? The emotion arising from a natural object 
may be more intense, may completely dominate the man ; 
but emotion arising from a mental stimulus can be more 
easily controlled and regulated. Delivery, or the proper 
expression of emotion, demands control. It is only con- 
trolled emotion that stirs an audience. Uncontrolled 
sorrow chokes the voice and inspires little sympathetic 
response in others. In fact, it often tends to awaken 
contempt, although from the standpoint of weakness it 
may be natural. It constricts the throat ; while con- 
trolled sorrow causes activity of the respiratory muscles 
and modulates the muscular texture of the whole body. 



Expression and Emotion. 8y 

Uncontrolled sorrow shows only physical effects ; con- 
trolled sorrow shows activity of the whole soul. Where 
there is effort to control, the real manhood of the sufferer 
is revealed, and the noble impulses of other souls are 
aroused from slumber. This especially marks the differ- 
ence between pathos and bathos. To endeavor to feel 
everything just as in nature will lead a man to become 
impulsive, sentimental and one-sided. The greatest art- 
ists and speakers belong to none of these schools. There 
ought to be another school which may be called the 
imaginative. In this the emotion is the result of an 
imaginative conception and picture. Such emotion is gen- 
uine, as genuine as emotion in nature, but it is different 
in kind ; it is also more or less different in degree. It 
has an aesthetic element which is not found in nature, but 
it is just as natural to the human soul. Emotion in life is 
often independent of thought and will — artistic emotion, 
never. Emotion in life is expressed for the relief of an 
excited sensibility, but emotion in oratory and art is 
revealed for a purpose. The imagination in its concep- 
tion of the scene, situation or character, the relation to 
the audience or the occasion, sympathetically awakens 
passion which diffuses itself over the body and tends at 
once to action; but the will resists the action, thus 
reserving the emotion till it becomes intense and domin- 
ates the whole man. Feeling is awakened in others by 
suggesting a corresponding mental picture. Expression 
is not an intellectual cataloguing of the physical effects 
of passion or even of the literal facts regarding the 
mental image. 

Thus emotion generated in the soul in the contempla- 
tion of a scene differs in some of its characteristics from 
the emotion born in rehearsing the same scene to 
another. The latter is directed, restrained and regulated ; 



88 The Problem. 

the former is a more passive indulgence. Emotion may 
be killed out, or may become motive to will ; it may be so 
restrained as to become intense and affect the muscular 
texture in the action of the whole body ; and still be as 
genuine, as real, as natural as if allowed to take its own 
course. A horse is a horse, when bridled and harnessed 
and driven by the hand of man, as well as when running 
wild over the plain. The aim of expression is simply to 
make others feel what we feel ourselves, and emotion 
though stimulated by imagination and regulated by will, 
must be genuine. 

From this can be seen that the function of the imagin- 
ation in expression is a very important one, and if we 
study the action of the mind carefully we will find that the 
imagination is not a mere decorative faculty, but is fun- 
damentally necessary to all mental and to all emotional 
action. An act of perception is not an act of the eye but 
of the mind. In geometry a point is defined as that 
which has neither length, breadth nor thickness. Such a 
thing is purely mystic, it cannot be seen by the eye or 
conceived by the mind ; it has to be embodied, it has to 
be converted into an image to be perceived, just as to be 
seen it has to be embodied in a dot. Again, the mind 
conceives a globe, but we can see only a portion of the 
globe with the eye. We can perceive a house, but we 
cannot see the whole house ; part of it is constructed and 
built by the reproductive faculties. We cannot see a 
whole room, a part of it has to be constructed by the 
imagination. The imagination, even as we look into the 
face of a dead mother, is the most active agent in creat- 
ing emotion. What is there suggests what is not there ; 
the kindly voice, the gentle look, the loving smile are 
perceived by the mind, not by the eye, and the heart is 
stirred to its depths. 



Expression and Emotion. 89 

We can thus see that imagination is really necessary to 
expression. Power in expression fundamentally depends 
upon the power of the imagination to call up the scene at 
will before the mind's eye. Men are taken up with the 
literal. The function of art is to inspire men with the 
ideal ; not because the ideal is less real, but because it 
suggests more than is seen. If the soul of the speaker 
cannot penetrate to the soul of things, if the pictorial 
faculties of his mind cannot break through the literal 
walls in which men are placed, if he cannot see and real- 
ize the whole from the part seen, he will not move men, 
but will have to deal with commonplace facts. The aim 
of art is to lift men out of the commonplace, to open 
their eyes to see in the individual the universal, to 
embody in the finite for finite conception that which is 
infinite and eternal. 

We hear it continually said by students, "Oh, if I 
could only speak some of my own thoughts, or if I could 
talk about a scene that I saw, I could feel it," but this is 
a mistake, for the lack of imagination is apparent in 
speech as well as in recitation. No man living ever saw 
the cross upon which Christ was crucified or knows the 
real Calvary. Even if the real spot were known, two 
thousand years have changed the very stones upon which 
stepped those feet which "were nailed for our advantage 
on the bitter cross." W T hat is left must be ideal, even as 
we stand under the few relics of trees which are called 
by tradition Gethsemane. To see Gethsemane requires 
imagination. The Sea of Galilee, without imagination 
would lack all power to awaken feeling. As a mere 
sheet of water it would not compare with Lucerne, if 
feeling must arise from what is seen. "The things 
that are seen" are transient, it is what is not seen, 
though forever really there, that moves and stirs the soul. 



90 The Problem. 

The highest requisite of a good speaker, a good reader 
or a good actor, is the power to see what is not visible to 
the eyes, to realize in imagination every situation, to see 
the end from the beginning by the imagination, and to 
realize a unity of purpose in each successive idea. Every 
artist must be a "maker-see." As we further study 
emotion we find that it is stimulated by some simple 
object or situation. Shakespeare shows Antony holding 
up the mantle in which Caesar was robed at the battle of 
the Nervii. This simple token carried the mind of his 
audience away from the literal scene to one that was 
national, to an occasion that was the glory of every 
Roman. It is while looking at this simple robe, and not 
at Caesar's body itself, that the fatal stab is painted, pos- 
sibly the most imaginative picture in English poetry. 

"Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed; 
And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, 
Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it — 
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved 

" If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no." 

The mind is sometimes dazed as it stands beside a 
dying father or a dead mother, but long afterward a 
vacant chair or a hat hung away, may stir the heart more 
deeply than the real presence. It is a little pair of shoes 
come upon suddenly, that moves the soul of the mother. 
It is the delicate suggestion that awakens the imagination 
and touches the fountain of feeling. Not only does the 
speaker's own feeling depend upon imagination ; it is 
necessary to awaken the imagination of his auditors. A 
speaker cannot give his emotion to his fellow-men, but 
he can awaken their own. There is a certain transmis- 
sion of emotion ; when we see some one laughing heart- 
ily, we laugh too ; but this is rather sympathy, it is 
rather due to contemplation of the person than to a 



Expression and Emotion. 91 

direct transmission of emotion. The blind or deaf would 
receive no impression of feeling. The artist, whether 
public speaker, reader or actor, must not become a spec- 
tacle. We have all seen a speaker shed tears himself, 
while his audience were moved only to pity him, if not 
to laugh at him. He shed tears enough for the whole 
audience; and became a spectacle, a mere object before 
the eye. The great speaker treasures his tears and 
paints their cause. This rouses imagination, awakens 
kindred souls, and tears are shed from other eyes. It is 
the amount of feeling stimulated by imagination con- 
trolled by the will for a purpose, which stirs the soul. 
He who merely plays with signs without having this deli- 
cate imaginative feeling permeating his being, will soon or 
late become superficial, and his art weak and ungenuine. 

As we analyze, however, even a purely intellectual pro- 
cess, we find that there is a volitional and an emotional 
element. According to the philosophers, the difference 
between musing and thinking is that in musing there is 
merely a drifting current of ideas. The mind, in other 
words, simply drifts from idea to idea, these ideas flowing 
through the mind by the passive action of the laws of 
association, but in thinking there is a conscious Critique 
of this current of ideas ; there is a self-direction and self- 
determination of the mind. This, of course, is a co-ordi- 
nation of volition with intellect. There is also here a 
species of double consciousness. Consciousness in mus- 
ing is not exactly the same as it is in definite thinking. 

And not only so, but interest must be awakened 
in the mind. Admiration and emotion quicken atten- 
tion. That is to say, thinking is impossible in its highest 
sense without simultaneous intellectual, volitional and 
emotional activity. Mere dry, cold, intellectual attention 
cannot be secured in a child's mind. Ideas must be 



92 The Problem. 

awakened, the mind directed to a specific object, and a 
responsive interest awakened in the breast. So that the 
fundamental intellectual processes of the soul are due to 
the co-ordination of the elemental powers of being. And 
this is especially true in expression. By long discipline 
the mind can separate and engage in abstract thinking 
with a minimum of emotion, but this is not the kind of 
thinking that makes a man an orator. 

Now from this analysis we can see that the normal pro- 
cess of expression requires first, an intellectual element. 
The mind sees the idea, grasps the situation, and then 
the feelings normally respond to this idea. Emotions 
awakened by the successive objects and situations upon 
which the attention is focussed are regulated and often 
restrained by will, and these diffuse themselves through 
the whole body and cause a response in the very texture 
of the muscles ; so that the color of the voice and all the 
subtle actions of the body are awakened by these internal 
impulses. 

Face to face with this conception, as old, if not older, 
than Aristotle, we can see the special errors of the one- 
sided views. They all violate this normal process of 
nature. Diderot holds that expression must result from 
thought alone ; Mr. Sheppard, that it must result from 
will alone. The latter view must be very similar to the 
first, for it is inconceivable that any one should advocate 
that emotion could be forced by volition. The most 
ridiculous of all things is a man trying to pump up 
emotion by mere force of will. Emotion can only be 
awakened by a mental grasp of an idea or situation. 
Accordingly these views may be regarded as essentially 
the same. In fact, Mr. Sheppard's view, though on a 
lower plane, is evidently derived from that of Diderot. 
The emotional view hardly needs to be discussed at all. 



Expression and Emotion. 93 

This also is one-sided. It implies that only one power of 
man's nature has to do with expression. Wild, uncon- 
trolled emotion, emotion entirely independent of thought, 
is worthy of what Diderot said of all feeling ; but a nor- 
mal man never has such emotion. A disciplined soul 
shows itself most of all in relation to emotion. The 
thought, the will, the emotion are in perfect unity. 

The first two views imply that emotion is necessarily 
wild ; that it can never be trusted. But every true artist 
knows that when thought, emotion and will are simulta- 
neously aroused, in an unconscious, spontaneous way, that 
emotion is a law unto itself. The greatest artist can 
hardly tell how or why, but he knows that he acts as he 
is taught by his own soul. In a great crisis of emotion, 
as in the famous potion scene in Romeo and Juliet, the 
explosions, the reactions, the rhythmic surgings of pas- 
sion come in accordance with natural impulses of the 
soul, stirred by ideas and imaginative situations. Con- 
sciousness or even a course of reasoning will never 
awaken the great force of passion except through such 
ideas. Reason and will are only used to regulate, to 
guide, to restrain, to secure a proper diffusion through 
the whole man, but the impulse itself is mystic in its 
origin and in many of its modes of action. 

The development of the power of abstract thought 
with the repression and killing out of all emotional 
response, is death to all oratory, to all art, if not to all 
happiness in human life. The normal process of the 
soul is a picture — an idea, ideal, or a situation — an emo- 
tional response to which becomes the motive to will. 
With the intellect cool, the heart warm, the will active, 
we have the strong and active human being. If art is 
man's reproduction in his degree of the universal pro- 
cesses of nature, then art demands that these three co- 



94 Tlie Problem. 

essential elements of his nature shall be developed and 
brought into co-operation. If delivery or histrionic art 
is that form of art which is nearest to personality, more 
than any other form it demands harmonious development 
and co-ordination of the elemental powers of the soul. 

These one-sided -and superficial views overlook another 
peculiarity of the human mind. There seem to be sev 7 
eral planes of consciousness, so that while one object, or 
part of an object, may be in the focus of consciousness, 
many other objects can be held in the background. 
Perspective in painting is an objective embodiment of 
this characteristic of the human mind. The mechanical 
school teaches virtually that genuine feeling is entirely 
inconsistent with proper self-possession and self-control, 
that there is but one plane of consciousness, and that 
the mind is a little narrow vessel which cannot contain 
thought if it contains emotion, or emotion if it contains 
thought. This school seems to lose sight of the fact that 
the head can be cool and the heart warm simultaneously. 

No better example of the complexity of the mind can 
be found than in the act of public speaking. In a good 
extemporaneous speaker there is a conscious purpose, a 
conscious arrangement of thoughts and a conscious selec- 
tion of words. There is a consciousness of the effect the 
thoughts are producing upon the audience ; a conscious- 
ness as to whether he is saying the right thing or not. 
"The true orator must not only have the power to say 
the right thing; he must also perceive that he is saying 
the right thing." The orator is also more or less con- 
scious of the action of his voice and of his body. He is 
not necessarily Controlling this deliberatively by direct 
action of the will or by rule. Consciousness merely 
recognizes what is going on. Though the speaker may 
be entirely unconscious of the sources, of his emotion, 



Expression and Emotion. 95 

even of the time when it comes to him, being, in fact, 
often surprised himself at the action of his own soul, yet 
in some degree he is always conscious of the effect of his 
ideas, of the emotion as it comes, and of the effect of 
these upon his organism. He is also more or less con- 
scious of the modulations of his voice and the positions 
and attitudes of his limbs and body, although their 
actions may be spontaneously determined by emotion. 

This complexity is perfectly natural. When a man is 
in great grief, he will attend to the simplest details of 
life. He will brush his hat and comb his hair to attend 
his mother's funeral. Some one has mentioned the fact 
that a lady almost prostrated with grief gave directions 
to prevent the top of a mahogany table from being 
scratched by the casket which was to contain the body 
more precious to her than all the world. 

The best public readers or actors never try to study a 
poem or a part according to the conception of another, or 
merely with a process of reasoning as to what is to be 
done. The true artist studies carefully and thoroughly, 
gets his mind full of the ideas and then endeavors to exe- 
cute this conception, all the time observing carefully the 
effects of the emotion that arises in his mind upon his 
voice and body. He struggles in every way to abandon 
himself to his conception of the situation and continually 
studies the effect of the unconscious impulses, the spon- 
taneous outflow from his own soul upon his voice and 
body. These ever afford him his best instruction. It is 
a teacher's function to stimulate these, and to lead the 
student to study himself. He must show the student 
wherein he does not abandon himself, where the uncon- 
scious impulses of his nature are not awakened, or his 
whole nature does not speak and where mechanical deter- 
mination has usurped the place of spontaneous outflow. 



g6 The Problem. 

The teacher must awaken and co-ordinate the impulses 
from the student's whole nature. He must see that one 
faculty is not cultivated more than another, but that all 
are equally strong. The highest aim in teaching deliv- 
ery, as Froebel said of all education, must be "to bring 
such objects before the mind as will stimulate sponta- 
neous activity." 

The truth of these principles is further proved by the 
fact that the advocates of the mechanical school are 
generally comedians. In France, where the mechanical 
school has its special home, there is no such thing as 
tragedy. The artists there who have approached most 
nearly to tragedy believe in genuine emotion. To bring 
forth tragedy requires seriousness. Even a Shakespeare 
only produced his great tragedies in the period of his life, 
when he was undergoing great sorrow. The best come- 
dians, however, such as Jefferson, Toole and Clarke, 
believe in genuine emotion. 

Again, the arguments for the mechanical school are 
specious. For example, it is contended that a man cannot 
speak to a large audience as he does to an individual 
man or in a parlor ; that the voice has to be modulated 
according to the hall. This can only be done by direct 
action of will, says Mr. Sheppard. It can only be done, 
according to Diderot, by mere deliberation. It will be 
granted by all that no man feels, in trying to move a 
thousand men, as he does when in conversation with one. 
The situation is different. The emotions will be differ- 
ent, and expression correspondingly different, but how 
can any one say that they are any less genuine? A man 
stirred by great patriotism, trying to arouse a thousand 
men, has as genuine emotion, has even a greater degree 
of emotion. So every gesture must be expanded and 
every inflection extended according to the measure of 



Expression and Emotion. 97 

the intensity of his thought and feeling. Besides, the 
sympathy of the audience affects the speaker, and it is 
very difficult for him to feel exactly the same before differ- 
ent audiences. Indeed, every true artist has to disci- 
pline himself to secure his emotion as the response to his 
imagination, and not be dependent upon the sympathy of 
his audience in order at all times to carry out his ideals. 
Artistic emotion must be controlled, but this is no argu- 
ment whatever for the adoption of the views of the 
mechanical school, whether of the will or intellect, in 
delivery. It proves rather, the importance of the view 
here advocated, that true delivery, like every noble act of 
man, calls for the activity of his whole nature, the co-ordi- 
nation of intellect, sensibility and will. 

These one-sided views, therefore, are all inadequate. 
The human being was evidently given the power to 
reveal all the three elemental phases of his nature simul- 
taneously. Language of the intellect is symbolic. This 
symbolic language can only vaguely suggest emotion. 
Each power of man's nature has a peculiar language by 
which alone it can be adequately revealed. The highest 
language is only suggestive, and must never be too literal. 
It must ever be sympathetic, and must aim to stimulate 
a corresponding activity in another soul. Otherwise true 
communion is impossible. If this is true, and only one 
of these powers is active in speech, expression must be, 
in the nature of the case, imperfect. Adequate expres- 
sion not only instinctively demands words but tones 
and motions to reveal experience, and nature evidently 
intended the experience to be genuine, as she gave lan- 
guages for the revelation of its every phase. 

If Diderot's Paradox, or the volitional theory be true, 
the problem of developing expression must be the mere 
study of the signs of emotion, a perfect knowledge of 



98 The Problem. 

these and the power to deliberately produce them. In 
fact, this is the view taken by the mechanical school of 
elocution. The most advanced methods founded on these 
views, requires a careful study of the expression of every 
part of the body and such a thorough practice of all these 
expressions, that the man can have a vocabulary of pan- 
tomimic and vocal actions, which he is to use delibera- 
tively as in the case of words. Nearly all our elocution 
has been taken up with this view. 

But on the other hand if the view here advocated is 
correct, then the development of expression is an entirely 
different problem. The proper co-ordination of the fac- 
ulties of the soul in expression must be studied, and 
while the voice and the body will call for as thorough 
training as the mechanical view, nay, even more, and 
while there must be as careful study into the expression 
of all the parts of the body and practice upon the vocab- 
ulary belonging to every agent, yet all this is done as a 
means and not as an end. All training aims to open the 
channels of expression and to develop the genuine action 
of every faculty and power, spontaneous as well as delib- 
erative. In short, effective delivery can only be devel- 
oped as all the powers of the soul are made to act in 
unity through a normal body with all its agents acting in 
harmony according to their intended functions. Thus 
alone can ■ there be a simultaneous manifestation of 
thought and experience, and the expression of the human 
being have power to move effectively his fellow-man. 



VI. 

EXPRESSION IN ART. 

''The sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed it; it is an idea residing in the 
breast of the artist, which he is always laboring to impart, and which he dies at last without 
imparting. ' ' — Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

The highest authorities consider all the arts as one in 
fundamental principles, if not in aim. Phidias, Giotto, 
Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo and the greatest 
artists of all time were not specialists in one art, but stu^ 
dents of every form of art. They were painters, archi- 
tects, sculptors, musicians and poets. 

The arts reflect each other; the terms which are 
applied to the arts are borrowed from each other. We 
speak of the tone of a picture, and the color of a piece 
of music. The sculptor must have a sense of color and 
music, or his work will be cold. Each art may definitely 
require a special set of faculties to be trained, but these 
are co-relative and must be brought into harmony for 
power in any one art. Hence a certain amount of train- 
ing in different arts develops the art capacities, and ena- 
bles the mind to grasp the elements that are fundamental 
to all art. 

In a study of any phase of art, to secure an advance, 
there must be a comparison of its work, its methods, its 
modes of procedure and even its technique, with other 
arts. Such a comparative method is in accordance with 
one of the fundamental requisites of all progress. A 
principle must be studied from different points of view, 
before it can be thoroughly apprehended and tested. 
Without such a comparative study, there is danger of 



ioo The Problem. 

superficiality and conventionality — of taking mere rules 
for laws of nature. When a worker in any one line of 
art merely studies his own phase of the problem, he is 
apt to become one-sided and technical; and so losing 
the fundamental grasp of what art really is, he can only 
gain a superficial mastery of his own art. Accordingly 
there must be many points of view, if not execution in 
different arts, in order to secure the highest development 
and efficiency of the art capacity. 

This comparative study is especially important in all 
phases of delivery, and all forms of histrionic art, on 
account of the fact that these cannot be recorded and 
are so completely passing, that we are very apt to miss 
the universal principles of true art upon which great- 
ness depends. Besides, these arts are so near nature 
that some doubt whether they should be regarded as 
arts at all. Hence there is a sp.ecial necessity, if we 
are to discover any fundamental principles governing 
expression, to bring all its phases into comparison with 
nature and the elemental principles dominating all art. 
Light may be found from those arts which can be 
recorded and thus preserved, and whose essential char- 
acteristics on this account have been more carefully 
studied and whose laws have been more definitely 
formulated. 

When we verge thus upon the study of the essential 
nature of art, we come to a problem which has puzzled 
the greatest philosophers of all time. But however great 
the question it can not be ignored ; for our ideas of the 
nature of delivery and expression will be closely con- 
nected, if not identical with our views of art. 

What are the fundamental elements of a work of art ? 
Without entering into the question as to the origin of art 
or the philosophy of art, we can see at once that one 



Expression in Art. 101 

essential characteristic of art is expression. Art is a 
necessity of man's nature. It is deeper than language, 
yet it is the highest mode the soul can secure to reveal 
itself. Expression is a term universally applied to all 
forms of art. It is true, art is sometimes divided into 
decorative and expressive, according as the aim is mere 
beauty or to manifest the human soul. Decorative art 
deals with that which is upon the surface, while expres- 
sive art belongs essentially to the revelation of the nature 
of man. But as has been said, "The growth of art has 
been in all times toward expression," and the greatest art 
of all ages has been expressive art. In fact, when we 
come to look carefully at the best decorative art, we find 
that it, too, is expressive. The division between decora- 
tive art and expressive art has regard to the use of the 
art rather than to its essential nature. 

Looking then at art from the simplest point of view, 
we find two things. First, a subjective, imaginative con- 
ception, or emotion, and this subjective idea or feeling, 
embodied so as to become an object of sense, perception. 
The transcendentalist and the realist both agree to the 
great fundamental fact that all art is the revelation of 
subjective impression into some kind of objective body. 
This, as we have seen, is expression. 

That expression is the essential element of all art is 
abundantly justified by every discussion of the subject. 
We read everywhere of expression in painting, expression 
in song, expression in music, expression in architecture, 
expression in sculpture, expression " in poetry. While 
occasionally men look at a work of art merely for the 
skill with which it is executed, yet all art is born in 
instinct, and appeals to the instinct of the observer; 
and that which makes the most universal appeal to 
instinct in the race is expression. 



102 The Problem. 

If expression is thus a fundamental characteristic o£ 
art, all art must primarily bring us to the study of the 
human being. We are thus brought to agree with Thore 
that "all art must be as human as possible." In it 
are the peculiar characteristics of man's nature ; it is 
simply the reflection of man's soul evolved by a process 
as natural to him as the growth of his own body. We 
will also find that the brightest light to be thrown upon 
art, the best means of understanding and developing 
the art capacity in man, is a study of human expression. 
Accordingly, not only is there an advantage to expression 
in the study of the elements of art, but we also find an 
advantage to art in the study of the elements of 
expression. 

Starting from the idea that expression is an essential 
characteristic of all great art, and that all the arts are 
one, we find that a work of art reveals its subjective ideal 
or conception through organic form in one of two ways : 
by representation, or by manifestation. These modes 
may exist simultaneously ; but the difference between 
them can be accurately determined, and one or the other 
necessarily predominates in any work of art. 

In representation man communicates his ideas by a 
symbolic or objective presentation of their forms, quali- 
ties, actions or relations. By such means can be shown 
the size, the length, the height, the form, the distance, 
the color, the action of the objects, the uses to which 
they may be put, and like characteristics. There are 
many phases of representation. One is purely conven- 
tional. The word horse, for example, represents to the 
mind, by agreement, a certain animal to which the symbol 
has no relation whatever, being designed merely to awaken 
in the mind an image of the animal. A whole nation 
uses cheval to represent the same idea. Again, we have 



Expression in Art. 103 

another form which is imitative in character. For 
example, a man may use the word bell for a certain idea, 
and in addition imitate with his voice in speaking the 
word the sound of the bell, or he may imitate the sound 
with mere tones. Again, a photograph is a mere copy or 
imitative representation of outside appearance. This is 
the lowest form of representation. Again, the repre- 
sentation may be only suggestive, there may be little 
imitation, little of the mere copying of the object, but a 
general suggestion of its character, of its size, form or 
shape. For example, in a picture, the general impression 
of the artist may be intimated rather than the more literal 
outside facts of the scene. Browning's poem, " As I ride," 
delicately suggests the motion of the horse. Some one 
has said that the words, "as I ride," suggest a shape 
exactly like a horse's back. A good painting intimates 
the idea to the imagination, does not literally present it 
to the eye. This is artistic representation and its principal 
form ; its appeal is not to the eye, but to the imagin- 
ation. But all these various presentations of the object 
or subject from the lowest reproduction to the most 
delicate suggestion, have certain characteristics in com- 
mon. They are all objective and are used to aid in 
creating an image. Conventional symbols alone can 
directly stand for anything subjective. 

Manifestation in art, on the contrary, does not deal 
in those things that stand in the place of something else ; 
it does not deal in symbols but in signs. Signs or the 
external actions or effects of hidden causes are found 
everywhere in nature. Nature rarely expresses symbolic- 
ally, but reveals manifestively. The bird's song is not a 
symbol of its life and joy, but it is none the less express- 
ive. Only occasionally do we have representation in 
nature, as in the song of the mocking-bird. In manifest- 



104 The Problem. 

ation the endeavor is not to exhibit one objective part 
through another, but to reveal thought and feeling 
directly through natural, significant actions. These are 
present everywhere in nature and are read by animals as 
well as by man. 

Thus, the difference between what is symbolic and 
what is significant is this : when one thing stands in 
place of another it is symbolic and representative ; when 
some phenomenon, motion, action or sound is the direct 
effect of a mystic cause, it is significant and manifestive. 
A laugh represents no idea, but it does manifest a staj:e 
of feeling; the word mountain, on the contrary, stands 
as the representation of an idea in the mind. 

The difference between representation and manifest- 
ation will be clearer from an illustration. It is said that 
Schumann, in the composition of one of his works, was 
haunted by a butterfly floating upon a leaf down a small 
stream. Does his music represent to us the butterfly 
that was in his mind ? Of course not, because music is 
not a representative art. A painting, a poem or some 
form of symbolic or representative art could adequately 
tell the story and suggest the picture that was in the 
mind of Schumann. The same picture cannot be exactly 
represented to another mind, because representative art, 
especially when it is a revelation of the mind, is inade- 
quate and must necessarily be indefinite. All, however, 
would be made to see a butterfly, a leaf and a brook of 
some kind. But the music of Schumann is expressive ; 
though it cannot represent the picture, all agree there is 
a revelation of the greatest tenderness and delicacy. 
The music awakens beautiful and delicate pictures in the 
listener ; not necessarily the same as those of the author ; 
but a feeling is stimulated similar to that which stirred 
the heart of the composer while the specific pictures are 



Expression in Art. 105 

left to the imagination. The spirit though not the body 
is conveyed by manifestation. Painting or poetry could 
represent the image in Schumann's mind ; but music 
can only manifest the feeling. Noble music reveals the 
emotion awakened, rouses the soul to see visions, but can 
not represent images. 

Representation is more rational, and can symbolize 
ideas ; manifestation is more emotional, and can reveal 
states of feeling. The one is more objective, the other 
is more subjective. One deals with external forms, 
colors and actions, the other deals with the essential 
conditions and dispositions awakened in the heart by the 
contemplation of objects, scenes, situations or actions. 

It can be seen at once that it is through the represent- 
ative mode that intellectual definiteness and clearness is 
given to expression. Without this all forms of art would 
be vague, because this appeals to the understanding, and 
awakens definite pictures in the mind which are neces- 
sary to the understanding and more or less to the 
imagination. But as we have found, motive, disposition 
and emotion are just as important subjects for expression 
as ideas. These have as great or even greater influence 
over our fellow-men, than any representation of facts. 
All art is the revelation of the subjective into the object- 
ive. The ideas and images of the mind, being in cor- 
respondence with objective things, can be represented; 
but experience belongs to the human soul and can only 
be manifested. Ideas cause experience and representa- 
tion may indirectly suggest experience, but it is only in 
music, in vocal or pantomimic expression, or some form 
of manifestation that feeling, disposition and motive can 
be directly revealed. 

So fundamental are these elements, that the arts may 
possibly be divided into representative and manifestive. 



106 The Problem. 

Sculpture would be the most representative, music the 
most manifestive art. Like all divisions of the arts, 
however, this is unsatisfactory. It must be understood as 
showing only the preponderance of one or the other of 
these modes of expression, as both belong to all art. This 
is similar to Gurney's division of the arts into Represent- 
ative and Presentative. He calls poetry, sculpture and 
painting, representative, because they "represent things- 
outside of themselves," while he classes architecture 
and music as presentative, because they "present things 
which cannot be imagined." This contains a truth, yet 
such statements as, that there is absolutely no such thing 
in nature as architecture or music, is strained, to say the 
least. The word representation here refers to that which 
stands for something else. Representation is used to 
cause#a mind to conceive an objective thing; while man- 
ifestation is the process of direct revelation of some expe- 
rience of the soul. The first is intellectual, the second 
is more emotional. One uses symbols, the other, signs. 
Hence this is a different classification from that of Gur- 
ney. The reference here is not to the relation of the 
subject of art to nature, but to the modes of the soul's 
revelation. This classification, however, is not meant as 
a division of the arts, but as an analysis of the elements 
of expression in art 

The terms representation and manifestation have a 
relation to the common terms, idealism and realism. It 
is found in art that idealism and realism are simply two 
phases of art. When art becomes too ideal it becomes 
vague and indefinite. When it is simply realistic it 
becomes merely a literal copy and is not art at all. 
"Without the spiritual," as Mrs. Browning has said, 
" the natural is impossible ; without sensuous, spiritual 
is inappreciable." Every true artist "holds firmly by the 



Expression in Art. \oj 

natural to reach the spiritual," endeavors to fix "the type 
with mortal vision, to pierce through with eyes immortal 
to the antitype some call the ideal — better called the 
real." Representation of course tends to realism, and 
manifestation tends more to idealism. But the terms are 
not synonymous because manifestation may be real as 
well as ideal, while representative art may be necessary 
to the expression of the highest ideal. Blake, though 
very ideal, is quite representative, especially in his 
illustrations. These terms regard art from another point 
of view. All this shows how impossible it is to make a 
satisfactory division of so complex a subject as art. The 
chief advantage is to secure clearer views of its elements. 

In the study of these two elements some curious facts 
are brought to our attention. One is that while mani- 
festation in art is first in the order of nature, yet repre- 
sentation is brought to perfection earlier. For example, 
sculpture reached perfection before painting, which is 
more manifestive, and both these arts are brought to 
perfection before music, which is still more manifestive 
than either. Although rhythm is the "first-born of the 
imagination," the symphony is one of the last. 

The value of the representative mode of expression 
has been greatly exaggerated. The cause of this is its 
relation to speech and utterance. Representation appeals 
more to the mind, and can be more quickly understood. 
Again, as it deals with the outside rather than the inside, 
it appeals to the eye as well as to the mind. In propor- 
tion as anything is representative it can be seen at once ; 
in proportion as it is manifestive, it can only be realized 
imaginatively, mystically. Representation is expressive 
more of human reason, and outside the realm of art the 
products of the reason are rated higher than those of 
the imagination and feeling. Another reason for this 



108 The Problem. 

over-valuation of the representative mode in expression 
is that given for the greater attention paid to verbal 
expression, namely, it can be recorded. A statue may 
come down to us from an otherwise unknown period and 
show us a conception of a master mind of that age. In 
fact, the statues of Greece show the ideal and the real 
spirit of the times more perfectly than any historical or 
philosophical treatise. But her oratory, histrionic art and 
music, these could not be recorded, hence we can only 
vaguely apprehend how the Greeks spoke or sang, how 
the Athenians felt or acted. 

Which of these modes is the higher ? This depends 
upon the point from which we view art. If the aim is 
the revelation of ideas and thought, representation by 
symbols, artificial or natural, is the most definite and 
adequate means of communicating the thought of one 
human being to another. But if the object is the reve- 
lation of the highest ideal, of that which is deepest in 
the soul, which can hardly be shown by representation — 
the manifestive element must be considered higher. The 
manifestive mode of expression is most powerful in its 
direct influence upon the living, acting, thinking, feel- 
ing human soul. It tends to broader culture and to 
refine and spiritualize the sensibilities of man. 

Some philosophers have gone deep into the nature of 
music. Schopenhauer has shown that while painting 
can reveal ideas, yet ideas belong to the realm of phe- 
nomena, and are hence themselves expressions ; that 
painting is the expression of an expression, but that 
music is the direct manifestation of the noumenon or the 
great soul of the world. Hegel and nearly all of the 
philosophers since his day have held that music is one of 
the highest arts. In the difference between Greek art 
and Christian art as unfolded by him there is something 



Expression in Art. 109 

of the same thought. Greek art was physical; it simply 
represented the physical body. There was little facial 
expression through which the deeper and more subtle 
emotions of the soul are manifested. It is only in Chris- 
tian or Romantic art that facial expression and the more 
manifestive art of painting are brought to perfection. 
Greek art was the perfection of representative art, and 
had its highest expression in sculpture. Sculpture uses 
the three dimensions of space, painting uses only two. 
While sculpture is one of the greatest arts, while "it 
shows the innocent and unshamed child awaking to a 
consciousness of itself," yet painting has been able to 
reveal impressions of the soul never possible to sculpture. 
It has a wider variety of subjects, and reveals greater 
depths of the soul. The revelation of the human face, 
of the great and powerful passions that flash through the 
eyes and features, could hardly be revealed in sculpture. 
Facial expression is not a representative but a manifest- 
ive form of pantomime. It is painting that can be made 
to breathe with the very life of the soul. 

When we pass to music, every dimension of space is 
obliterated. Music becomes the direct revelation of the 
man, a revelation of his life and soul often entirely inde- 
pendent of any representative element. The musician 
from one, two or three sounds which are everywhere in 
nature can " make not a fourth but a star." The archi- 
tect may build a Solomon's temple, the musician may 
build a temple for a minute as he breathes out his music, 
revealing all the emotions of his soul. 

A novel is more representative than a poem, than a 
drama, but it is not so high a work of art. In fact, in 
poetry it is only the words that are representative, and 
the higher the poetry, the more does the manifestive 
predominate. Poetry is no more mere words than paint- 



HO The Problem. 

ing is pigment. The great power of Hamlet, as a work 
of art, is because words are few and suggestive, and all 
representation is transcended by manifestation. A man 
who merely deals in representation may be upon the 
plane of science, upon the plane of facts, but he is not in 
the realm of art at all until he rises into the realm of 
manifestation. 

Art, whether it lasts for five minutes or for a thousand 
years, is the unfolding of personality. When the 
impression of some great event in man's life, or in the 
experience of the world, can be so revealed or manifested 
for others that all the race can feel it, then we have art. 
The ideal everywhere tends to be buried beneath the 
literal. The eyes of men become blinded by prosaic 
detail, and it is the province of art to manifest the ideal, 
to reveal the soul which lies everywhere in nature, hidden 
in the folds of a literal body. Of course, the more per- 
manent the art is, the better ; but sometimes a long life 
of objectivity must be sacrificed for one vivid glance of 
the invisible. If only what is permanent be art, there is 
no art in oratory. But if art is the revelation of the 
human soul, then the most direct and powerful manifest- 
, ation through the living voice, the living body, of the 
most profound experience is art though it die the moment 
it is born. The instinct of the race has ever held it to 
be art, for more than all others it has been the means 
adopted by the noblest men to inspire their fellow-men 
to nobler ideals. 

So that when we come to study the importance of 
these two modes in their relation to each other, we find 
that in any great work of art, the manifestive must be 
present. It is the transcendence of the manifestive 
element that is a chief difference between poetry and 
prose, or between good poetry and bad poetry, or 



Expression in Art. in 

between high art and low art. The mere mechanical 
structure is of very little importance, except in so far as 
it is made a scaffolding for that which manifests and 
reveals the subjective conditions and emotions of man. 

As a proof of this let us look at the arts which are 
more especially representative. Let us consider some 
great painting for example. The universal judgment of 
the masters is that when a painting merely copies, 
merely photographs a scene, it is low art. Even the 
realistic school of painting holds this more or less. It 
holds that while nature must be truthfully represented, 
yet there must be selection, and that not everything can 
be represented even in the simplest flower. Now what 
is the principle of this selection? Is it not that those 
parts which are most manifestive, most significant, which 
most serve as signs of the real character of the objects, 
must be represented ? 

One writer has said that painting is the most tell-tale 
of arts ; that you can tell the character of a man as you 
look at his work. Thus even an objective artist, such as 
the painter, must breathe into his art his deepest experi- 
ence. If he merely represents literal facts he is cold, 
and his spirit is lost. A great painting, therefore, is 
great because it is manifestive. 

Thus all that art can do is to give the impression 
made upon the soul, and whenever there is too great 
representation of detail, then the great general impression 
which can only be suggested or manifested, is lost. 

In one of the pictures of Holman Hunt, The Shadow 
of Death, commonly called The Shadow of the Cross, we 
have beautifully painted shavings, and an exact repro- 
duction of a carpenter's shop. Several years of study 
were given to the kinds of tools used, and these tools are 
all carefully represented. We have a young worker of 



1 1 2 The Problem. 

the time, weary with his work, standing up, stretching 
out his arms. Behind him a shadow thrown upon the 
shavings is seen by his mother, whose back is turned to 
us, with the color of her dress, and the texture of the 
cloth, and even the boxes in which she is searching 
accurately and definitely imitated, with every detail 
perfectly copied. But the Christ is hardly seen there. 
The aim of the representative element in art is to aid in 
showing the impression in the artist's soul, and that 
impression, if it was a true impression of the scene, was 
not a mere impression of shavings, of a saw that was 
pulled upward and not pulled backward and forward. It 
was the impression of one in history who humbled him- 
self, took upon himself the burdens of the world, who 
labored at his trade, and who developed his personality in 
the midst of human environments, and whose mother was 
not a simple bundle of clothes and textures, but a woman 
who /'pondered all these things in her heart," who, if 
she caught sight of the shadow of the cross, would have 
so revealed it as to give us a unity of impression, and not 
a mere descriptive representation of a few objective 
things. In the face of the tired young man, no satis- 
factory conception is given of the future, or of the real 
nature of the youth. The work is so representative that 
all the impression we receive is of various literal details. 
These are represented, but the spirit of the scene is not 
shown. The representative elements transcend the man- 
ifestive, reversing the great law of art. The represent- 
ative is thus limited. The higher art is, the more 
suggestive it must be. 

Novel -writing may be considered the most definite 
form of representative art ; but how inadequate this is to 
give an exact picture of the mind, is shown in the illus- 
trations of the ablest novels by the best artists. Each 



Expression in Art. 113 

artist will give a picture of a character entirely different 
from any other. However vividly portrayed in words, 
there are as many Micawbers and Ethel Newcomes as 
readers. 

Programme or descriptive music is largely representa- 
tive ; the lower forms are more representative, while the 
higher forms are more manifestive. Beethoven's Eroica 
and pastoral symphonies are very representative. "The 
Storm " passage in the latter is vividly descriptive. Bee- 
thoven, however, placed upon the programme when this 
symphony was produced, Mehr ausdruch der empftndung- 
als malerei, "more expression of emotion than portrait- 
ure," that is, more manifestation than representation. 
Here we see the idea of the greatest of musicians as to 
the relation of these elements. 

Thus, we must not compare these two modes ; for both 
are essential elements of every great work of art. The 
representative element in some degree is necessary in all 
forms of art, because the idea must be shown, a pictorial 
conception conceived, and these must be embodied in 
some kind of external form. The idea must be appre- 
hended, and hence must be represented in familiar 
objects of sense, otherwise there can be no adequate 
conception formed of the definite meaning and purpose. 
But the manifestive must also be present, for " art is the 
intervention of personality." Not only must the truth be 
shown, but there must be a revelation of the soul that 
awoke to it, and the love that embraced it. Even in 
poetry and the artistic use of verbal expression, this is 
true. Macbeth manifests the deepest truths regarding 
the human conscience and the human soul, as well as 
represents to us certain scenes, characters and ideas. 

But it is in artistic delivery where all the languages of 
man are brought into harmonious action, that we realize 



1 1 4 The Problem. 

fully the co-ordinate relationship of manifestation and 
representation to each other. 

Does not this explain more adequately the application 
of Browning's idea of art, which was applied to delivery 
in Chapter IV? "Art remains the one way possible of 
speaking truth," because art is a union of manifestation 
and representation. True expression not only represents 
the ideas, but can simultaneously manifest the spirit of 
the soul that speaks. It not only symbolizes the thought 
or meaning, but is able as well to reveal the conditions 
of the personality that speaks. Thus all the powers of 
the hearer's soul will be awakened to action. Not only 
will thought be made clear to the intellect, but disposi- 
tions favorable to the reception of this truth will also be 
quickened. The artist will be enabled to tell the truth 
"obliquely," suggestively, indirectly, adequately, "do the 
thing shall breed the thought, nor wrong the thought 
missing the mediate word," and thus "paint his picture 
and save the soul beside." 

This explanation of the elements of art has a most 
forcible illustration in the modern conflict which has 
gone on in relation to music. Many think that the chief 
object of the life-long discussions of Richard Wagner was 
to show that the highest art is the proper co-ordination 
and unity of the elements of all art. Whatever may be 
our opinions regarding .him, his ideas about art are 
worthy of our most serious attention. All his views 
regarding "the art of the future" do not concern us, but 
one or two points illustrate the principles here discussed. 

The special point in Wagner, that is of interest in the 
study of expression, is the bringing of words and music 
into harmony. The old idea regarded words and music 
as antagonistic to each other, the view was something 
like Dogberry's, "if two ride of a horse one must ride 



Expression in Art. 115 

"behind"; and the one to ride behind, according to the 
old musicians, must be the poet. It was shown by 
Wagner conclusively that neither need ride behind, that 
on the contrary, they could ride abreast upon two equal 
chargers, and could mutually assist each other in accom- 
plishing the great end. The importance of this in art 
has not been appreciated. It is beginning to dawn upon 
the world that he was right when he said that the growth 
of art must be dependent upon the co-ordination of the 
various forms of art, bringing them into harmonious 
co-operation for the conveyance of one impression. 

As an aesthetic principle, Wagner contended that it 
is the true nature of music not to be the end, but a 
medium, of dramatic expression. The dominating prin- 
ciple of his work seems to be that poetry, music, panto- 
mime, painting and the plastic arts, in fact every form 
of art, can be made to co-operate toward one end, that 
they can be so interwoven as to be completely inter- 
dependent, by all being made subservient to the one 
great aim of dramatic expression. The reason there are 
so few singers who can sing in Wagner's operas, is 
because the singer must think and feel as well as dis- 
play vocal execution. 

Wagner introduces characteristic musical phrases as 
exponents of emotional or scenic complications. These 
are called the "theme " or "Leit Motif." This is used by 
Wagner more freely than by any composer. He employs 
such a "theme" for every character, and not only so, 
but for every prominent feature in the scenery or action 
of the play, and he even indicates the change of the 
passions of his principal characters by distinct phrases. 

Now it can be seen at once that this melodic form 
becomes in his hands a representative symbol. As we 
hear it, a distinct picture is conveyed to the mind by 



1 1 6 The Problem. 

these phrases. Sometimes he interweaves these so as to 
tell the whole story of a life in a single scene, as in 
Siegfried's "Trauer Marsch." 

Thus, whether Wagner would approve the terms here 
employed or not, to me his best work is the harmonious 
co-operation of what has been here called the representa- 
tive and manifestive elements of expression in music. 
This idea did not originate with him ; Sebastian Bach, 
Beethoven and others show examples in their music, but 
he first contended for it as a doctrine — though of course 
not in the terms here used — and not only contended for 
it but practiced it in his own art. 

As an illustration, let us note in the " Gotterdam- 
merung" the parting of the lovers. As Siegfried leaves 
Brunhilde in the opening of this play, he winds a parting 
strain upon his horn, and as we linger over the tender 
scene the orchestra takes up the parting note of the 
horn, and as the sound grows fainter and fainter in the 
distance, the illusion is kept up in the mind and we feel 
the gradual passing away of Siegfried over the hills and 
far through the forest. At the same time, the manifest- 
ive elements in the music are revealing the emotion of 
the lovers and the tenderness of the separation. The 
representative element helps the manifestive because 
it sustains and intensifies the imaginative picture. The 
listener's heart goes out to Siegfried wandering afar in 
the depth of the forest, as we hear the faint echo of his 
horn, while the whole orchestra pours forth the feeling 
of the two lovers. These two elements are intimately 
intertwined in the music, as the pictorial conception 
which is the creation of the imagination is co-ordinated 
in the human heart with corresponding feeling. This 
representative element is very delicate — only one instru- 
ment is concerned with its production — and its effect is 



Expression in Art. 117 

transcended of course, by the manifestive elements of all 
the other instruments. 

Take another illustration of the co-ordination of repre- 
sentative and manifestive elements from Siegfried. In 
the noted anvil song, while Siegfried is hammering upon 
his sword the strokes of his hammer and the blowing of 
bellows are brought in co-operatively and rhythmatically 
with the music of the orchestra. Even his filing upon 
the iron which is regarded as among the most disagree- 
able noises in the world, is woven by Wagner into such 
music that it is not discord. It intensifies, when not 
over done, the pictorial conception of the reality, and aids 
in producing the illusion. It gives a kind of frame-work, 
so to speak, to uphold the manifestive elements which 
reveal feeling, as good drawing aids and is necessary to 
color in painting. Of course it is a very daring piece of 
work, and when done badly the noise can easily be made 
to destroy the music of the orchestra and the voice of the 
singer, and to make all ridiculous. Whether or not he 
was entirely successful in this and in other cases, the 
thought was a great one in art, and will aid men to see 
how the most diverse elements may be brought into 
co-operation to produce an artistic effect. 

Better illustrations of the principle are afforded by 
Wagner's failures. In the Gotterdammerung a steed is 
brought upon and across the stage. The writer carefully 
noted the effect upon the people, especially the remarks 
they were making. All of them were able to pick out 
flaws in the horse. Some said he must be an old cart 
horse with the hair worn off the side by the shaft, This of 
course was not true, yet the horse was insignificant. He 
could not be brought into harmony with the other stage 
effects. This proves the fact that representation m is a 
dangerous thing. Representative elements must always 



1 1 8 The Problem* 

be transcended by the manifestive. Only so much repre- 
sentation can be introduced as will aid the mind to con- 
ceive the situation. It cannot be literal or imitative, but 
only suggestive. In this case the representative became 
so strong as to appeal only to the eye and not to the 
mind. The horse was not a suggestion to the imagina- 
tion but a literal presentation, and the attention of many 
was so absorbed in the horse that they wholly lost the 
effect of the music. Herein lies the weakness of 
Wagner's art, as well as its strength. He was so- 
strongly impressed with the importance of representation 
in music that he has sometimes gone too far. The horse 
was a discord in music, and not an element of harmony. 
Whatever appeals merely to the eye is not art. It is 
only art when it appeals to the mind. The repre- 
sentative, when it appeals only to the eye, becomes 
merely imitation, and is the death of art. So long as 
the manifestive transcends the representative the co-ordi- 
nation of the two will produce the greatest artistic effect. 

Of course there is no attempt here either to defend or 
to criticise Wagner. The only aim is to illustrate the 
points here made regarding the nature of expression in 
art, to show that the highest expression is that which 
reveals both of these elements, and to open the way to 
prove that delivery can only be improved by developing 
both its representative and manifestive elements. 

There is an additional and more weighty reason for 
all this discussion regarding expression as the funda- 
mental element of all art. Schiller, Herbert Spencer and 
others have held that all art is derived from the play 
instinct. Leading writers of almost every school of 
aesthetics, have held that art is innate. If these are 
correct, the origin of art must be very intimately associ- 
ated with the original and innate or natural languages. In 



Expression in Art. 119 

fact, when the origin of art is more carefully studied, this 
relation may prove to be more intimate still, and art be 
found to spring directly from the natural languages. For 
before art there was expression, since expression is in 
some form as universal as life. ' In the lowest forms of 
life we begin to see certain external signs of internal 
conditions. Even the plant manifests its life in obedi- 
ence to the same law. . The leaves of the tree are an 
outward sign of an inward force. So it is in infinite 
degrees up to man. As the human being gradually 
develops we begin to find a desire to record his feelings, 
but before this record there is the expression, the pres- 
entation directly to his fellow-men of the many phases of 
feeling. The earliest games are associated with the 
natural languages. One of the most elemental and 
instinctive impulses in the human heart, the earliest to 
show itself in the child, is the dramatic. In his earliest 
play he begins to act his part, and so it was in the child- 
hood of the race. Here we have the earliest unfolding 
of artistic instinct. And the primitive play, and the 
mimic dance, and the rude song must necessarily ante- 
date the more permanent arts ; that is to say, histrionic 
art in some form precedes all other forms of art. Songs 
were sung before they were written. Childhood, whether 
of the race or of the individual, acts and speaks before it 
draws. Art for its highest subjects, its most definite 
terms, constantly refers to the natural languages of man. 

Hence in this work the word- expression is zised in its 
elemental sense as applied to the human being using his 
own natural languages in their natural unity ; and all 
other uses of the word, in painting, sculpture, music and 
poetry are considered figurative. These arts borrow the 
term naturally, as the aim of all art is revelation, and the 
fundamental conception of expression is found in the 



120 The Problem. 

relation of man's soul to his own body and its natural 
modes of manifestation. There is one original form of 
expression which is the father of all expression in art. 

We see proof of this in the influence of dramatic or 
histrionic art of different forms upon the other arts. 
Dramatic art flourished in Greece before the greatest 
period of sculpture and painting. Before a Phidias was 
an yEschylus, before a Homer was oratory and the singer 
of Homeric hymns, before Albert Diirer was a long 
line of Minnesingers, before Hamlet were the miracle 
plays, before Walter Scott and the modern novel was 
Shakespeare. Thus dramatic art has ever led the way. 
Histrionic art is the most direct means of expressing the 
emotions and conditions of the human soul, while paint- 
ing and sculpture are rather records of such expression. 
The fundamental elements of expression that we find in 
works of art can all be traced back to a beginning in 
the natural languages. The living manifestation of the 
man through the living body, the living face, the living 
voice, directly to his kind, an expression that does not 
require physical matter or any instrument or means 
except his own organism, must be connected with the 
beginning of all artistic ideas. It is primarily from the 
exercise of the human voice that reason and imagination 
grow, and that the whole human being expands and 
unfolds his higher powers. The art of music is born 
when sound is used as the means of revealing the deepest 
emotions and the highest ideals of the human soul. It 
was only after observing the repose and strength that are 
revealed through the human body, and after seeing the 
expansion and modulation of the human form under the 
influence of emotion that man grasped the clay and 
moulded a Theseus and a Niobe. The conscious pos- 
session of his own body by emotion awakened man as 



Expression in Art. 121 

his conceptions widened and his feelings deepened to 
mould matter as a new embodiment of the expanding soul. 
Expression in his own body led him to realize that he 

"May so project his surplusage of soul 
In search of body, so add self to self 
By owning what lay ownerless before — 
So find, so fill full, so appropriate forms — 
That although nothing which had never life 
Shall get life from him, be not having been, 
Yet something dead may get to live again, 
Something with too much life or not enough, 
Which, either way imperfect, ended once ; 
An end whereat man's impulse intervenes, 
Makes new beginning, starts the dead alive, 
Completes the incomplete, and saves the thing." 

Oratory may be sneered at, but public speaking in 
some form will last as long as the race, because it is the 
most direct and natural combination of the two funda- 
mental modes of revealing the soul, representation and 
manifestation. All the clearness and definiteness of 
thought can be given by the one, and all the fullness of 
life and all the depth of experience possible to the soul, 
can be revealed by the other. 

Whatever a man may write and however perfectly and 
adequately he may present it, there is a desire on his part 
when roused by noble thought, high purposes and strong 
convictions, to meet his fellow-men face to face ; and not 
only to embody his conceptions in words but to manifest 
every shade of his experience by means of voice and 
body. However clearly truth may be presented through 
words, the fundamental instinct of the race demands this 
co-ordination of all human languages as the most direct 
and complete manifestation of his spirit. 

When histrionic art in any form is degraded it is a 
curse to all morals and to all art, for all other forms of 
art soon or late follow in its train. A realistic actress 



122 The Problem. 

like Bernhardt must have a play like La Tosca written 
for her, in which four or five people are killed for no 
other reason than to give her occasions for exhibiting the 
physical effects of emotional excitement. Thus is caused 
to be written a most degraded play — a play without 
any moral, social or artistic purpose. Then a host of 
imitators arise, and public taste is vitiated, to say nothing 
of the moral effects of such realistic pessimism. On the 
other hand when histrionic art, whether in public reading, 
recitations or any other form of art, is elevated to the 
highest standard, universal art is ennobled and refined ; 
for this is the most direct means of stimulating the imag- 
ination and awakening artistic ideals in the mass of the 
people, thus developing taste and appreciation of the best 
art of every form. 

Hence to improve expression man has to be developed 
as an artistic being, for expression and art in many phases 
are essentially one. The instincts and intuitions are to be 
educated. The eyes are to be opened to the province of 
art in the revelation of the soul ; and though we may not 
go so far as Schelling, and say that art furnishes the 
highest solution of the most fundamental problems of 
philosophy, at any rate we must realize the fact that art 
is the highest mode of adequately manifesting the soul 
of man, of revealing his highest conceptions and deepest 
emotions. Hence if oratory or any other form of expres- 
sion is to be improved, it must be considered a part of 
artistic training and must be accountable to its laws. 
Every art, and especially expression, must not only be 
developed according to its own peculiarities as an art but 
must be compared with the fundamental principles which 
underlie all art, for only by comparison of such prin- 
ciples can departures from nature's elemental modes be 
tested and any canons worthy of regard be obtained. 



VII. 

ART IN EXPRESSION. 

"The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." 

Having thus examined the relation of expression to 
art, we are prepared to study the artistic use of the 
natural languages, or the relation of art to expression. 
According to the ordinary conception, so widely diffused 
that it is almost universal, all elocution is a form of repre- 
sentative art. In fact, it is regarded as something upon 
the lowest plane of the representative, a mere imitative 
art. The highest excellence in elocution is often called 
imitative modulation. He is apt to be considered the 
greatest elocutionist who is the most skillful imitator, 
who can represent the beat of a drum, the thunder of 
rolling waves, the tolling of a bell, or the siftging of a 
bird. So that elocution has come to be regarded as a 
synonym of all that is empty and superficial in art. 
Words have been too much regarded by the elocutionist 
merely as "sound echoing the sense," and not as repre- 
sentative symbols through which he can reproduce or 
suggest ideas. While both ideas and their symbols must 
be given carefully, yet the peculiar province of his own 
art is to manifest feeling by the modulation of the tones 
that are the material of words. 

While there is a small class of words which have this 
imitative or representative character, such as the buzzing 
of the bee, the murmuring of the waves, and the like, it 
has been conclusively shown that though onamatapoeia, or 
mere sound echoing the sense, has played a part in 
certain instances, yet it is only one of the many elements 



124 The Problem. 

which have brought forth language. But though this 
should be granted, yet language is employed so figu- 
ratively, words are used in such secondary senses, that if 
we take the word thunder, for instance, the feeling and 
the idea which it is called upon primarily to manifest, 
may be entirely foreign to the sound of the thunder. 

Take, for example, an expression from one of Cunning- 
ham's lyrics, "But give to me the snoring breeze"; by 
taking the word "snoring" here, and endeavoring to 
represent the idea of snoring, the whole spirit of the lyric 
is lost. Some editors print "roaring," others "snorting," 
but the same principle holds true. Again, in one of Whit- 
tier's poems, the noble Mexican woman who finds her 
dead husband, as she ministers to the dying soldiers, 
sees upon a youth's breast the eagle of the North, and 
turns away in horror as from her husband's murderer. 
"But she heard the youth's low moaning," etc. Now if 
in reading this line the moaning of the youth is repre- 
sented, the whole spirit of the poem is lost. The funda- 
mental expression required is the manifestation of her 
passion, of her sympathy and of our admiration for her 
noble deed. Here is an illustration also of the fact that 
representation tends to carry us to mere accidents. The 
moaning of the youth is a mere accident, not the highest 
expression of pain. The reader has always several situa- 
tions and emotions any one of which he may choose as 
the cause of expression. If he has the conception that 
his art is a representative one, and chooses, as is so often 
done, every opportunity for representation, the spirit of 
the best poetry is destroyed. 

Mere words can never determine expression. When 
we speak of the moaning of the waves and the sighing of 
the winds, a rhetorical figure is employed, and to represent 
the sighing and the moaning would be to turn figurative 



Art in Expression. 125 

language into literal, which is indeed often done in elocu- 
tionary rendering. This, we can see, violates the prin- 
ciple so long governing the use of figures. They 
must not be made to go upon " all-fours. " In fact, when 
the reader brings out the buzzing of the bee, the moaning 
of the waves, the thunder of the cataract, the sigh of the 
wind, the attention of the mind is called to a kind of 
vocal jugglery and the emotion excited is not unlike that 
aroused in one who looks at the tricks performed by one 
skillful in sleight of hand. Men are called upon to listen 
to and recognize mere accidents in nature. The body is 
shown rather than the soul. Who has not heard a beau- 
tiful poem utterly ruined by bad recitation ? Many 
mistake the cause, and say that such poems are not 
capable of recitation. Our elocutionary art has been 
brought so low that every thing in a delicate poem of 
Shelley or Keats is made literal. The poetic spirit is 
often perverted and ruined, because it is not appreciated. 
The conception of the art is to imitate accidents, referred 
to often very remotely, and not to reveal the soul that 
listens ; to give the sound of the cataract and not the 
emotion of him who looks upon it. This, it can be seen, 
is a false conception of art, causing the representative to 
transcend the manifestive, if indeed there are, in such 
work, any manifestive elements at all. True poetry of all 
kinds can be recited, and its dignity increased with the 
right kind of manifestive reading or artistic rendering.* 

If one will take up the simplest lyric, for example, " The 
Daisy," by Wordsworth, and read it free from any artifi- 
cial system, the fundamental emotion felt is admiration, 
and of course, this ought to be revealed by the voice. In 
examining an elocutionist of some prominence once, who 

*The extent to which imitative elocution is carried is shown by an advertisement in 
which a lady mentions as special accomplishments "bobolink tones and baby cries taught." 



126 The Problem. 

wished to study, I gave her one of these beautiful lyrics ; 
but she could not read it with any expression at all, said 
she could not see "any thing to it." The reason was, she 
had been taught only the lower kind of elocution, and 
simply looked for things that could be imitated ; but, of 
course, there were no such elements in so delicate and 
beautiful a poem. She was looking along the lines to 
find "something to do." Her mind saw no picture, and 
of course her heart felt no response to the beautiful ideas. 
Words symbolize the image, but the voice manifests the 
response to it. Vocal expression is primarily manifestive, 
like music. In fact there are more subjective elements 
in vocal expression than in music. 

Let us take for example, Bryant's beautiful little poem 
"The Bobolink." As it is usually rendered, we have 
chiefly an endeavor to represent the bird's song. When 
we examine the poem we find four lines of each stanza 
manifestive of the emotion which rises in the heart of the 
poet or of the reader, in response to the sight of the 
bird and the green meadows, or to the song which ever 
lives in the heart of one who has heard it. There is not 
a particle of imitation ; all is manifestive. Then we 
come to the endeavor to manifest the spirit of joy which 
dominates the bird itself, and last of all we come to repre- 
sentative syllables which only delicately suggest — they 
cannot imitate — the wonderful song. The voice here, of 
course, becomes representative. The endeavor is to pic- 
ture objectively or to hint to the imagination some faint* 
echo of the song itself ; but this element, as can be seen 
at once, is delicately introduced in the poem, and the 
manifestive elements, even in the last lines, completely 
transcend the mere imitation of the song. This poem is 
taken advisedly because it contains more representative 
elements than almost any one in the language. But even 



Art in Expression. 127 

here the representative element is only introduced in 
connection with the manifestive. The imaginative pic- 
ture is first seen and felt, the verbal or legitimately repre- 
sentative language is made to suggest what is seen, and 
the heart speaks its joy at the sight. Carried on by 
feeling we endeavor to assimilate the bird's spirit by 
sympathy to our own hearts, to manifest the awakened 
experience, and finally at the close of each stanza to rise 
to a delicate objective embodiment, which can only 
faintly suggest the inimitable song. 

If art is merely imitative, merely skill to tickle the 
fancy, then the best elocutionary art would be simply the 
imitation of this bird's song. But all art, as has been 
shown, is chiefly the revelation of man's soul, and if so it 
is not to represent the sound of the bird except so far as 
to suggest the spirit of that song, because the words 
which are the legitimate symbolic representations, will 
convey the idea without literal representation or imita- 
tion. The function of art here is to reveal directly the 
feelings of the soul of the one who listens to the song; 
but as usually read, all the energy and attention is given 
to the imitation of the song, to the neglect of the more 
important element of manifestation. The effect of such 
work is to call all attention to the skill of the performer. 
A true union of representative and manifestive elements 
awakens the imagination and carries the hearer away to 
the green meadows and summer breeze. The funda- 
mental aim of the writer is to reveal the spirit not the 
letter of the song of the bobolink, and the aim of the 
reader should be the same. In fact, no human voice, how- 
ever perfectly trained, has ever been able to give more 
than a crude suggestion. Introduced delicately it helps 
to carry on the illusion and gives a union of the conscious 
and the unconscious, the objective and the subjective, the 



128 The Problem. 

body with the soul. But the soul must transcend the 
body. Besides, if only the objective elements were intro- 
duced, the performance often becomes a subject for ridi- 
cule rather than for admiration. In all representative 
work, there is a rich comical element. Comedy deals 
more with the objective, more with accidentals than with 
essentials, and for this reason there are more represent- 
ative elements in comedy and the humorous. 

The prolonged struggle among those who are trying to 
elevate dramatic art is shown in the many criticisms, 
especially in England, upon the famous speech of Mer- 
cutio in "Romeo and Juliet." His description of Queen 
Mab driving over the parson's nose and the lawyer's 
fingers and the soldier's neck, furnish such great tempta- 
tion for representation in order to raise a laugh in the 
audience, that it has become notorious as an example of 
the tendency to obscure the real poetry for the sake of 
the external imitation of accidents. All was on the 
plane of farce as it was given formerly, before the critics 
and better artists fought against the degradation of the 
spirit for the letter. 

One aim of art is to secure an objective body for a 
subjective ideal. This is the reason why manifestive 
elements in art are so despised and so overlooked. The 
desire is to make all objective, but this is impossible in 
many cases, and the objective embodiment, to be art at 
all, must be united to the subjective. The objective 
must simply form a kind of body, that the soul may be 
manifested. If the objective only is present, every thing 
is dead, for only the body can be represented ; life and 
soul can only be manifested. Some one has said that 
wax-works, the most lifelike art, is the most lifeless. 

Some one may say the illustrations here are lyrics, and 
ask why not use the word lyric for manifestive and dra- 



Art in Expression. 129 

matic for representative. It is true that in all lyric art 
manifestation predominates ; and in dramatic art there is 
more of representation. The lyric certainly was the 
beginning of all vocal expression. True dramatic art, 
however, is a union of both elements. It is even doubt- 
ful if the representative ever transcends the manifestive 
in the best dramatic work. Note, for example, Hamlet's 
soliloquy upon death. Observe how little there is here 
of representation. Our impression is not of what he did, 
and the person who renders it is not primarily concerned 
with what he did — if he is he makes it ridiculous — but 
with the assimilation of what Hamlet thought and felt. 
In short, the legitimate presentation of it requires mani- 
festation rather than representation. Of course, there is 
a small representative element, but the assimilation of 
the true spirit of the passage calls for a predominance of 
manifestation. 

Again, take an illustration of the same principle from 
pantomime. If we study a man in conversation, his 
hands, his face, his body, as well as his voice, are all 
manifesting subjective emotions and conditions while his 
words are representing his ideas. If two men who do 
not know each other's language meet in a desert and 
endeavor to communicate with each other, then the hands 
and body deal in signs as substitutes for words. One 
can tell the other the road, he can show that he wishes a 
drink of water; but no one will contend that this is 
nature's intended artistic use of pantomime. One will 
tell the other of a foe before him by showing his fright 
or antagonism, but here is only a poor substitute for 
words. When we come to the use of words we note 
occasionally representative actions by the body. As 
examples, when one man says to another "there is the 
door," or when old Polonius says "take this from this," 



130 The Problem. 

his hand becomes necessary for the clearer representation 
of the words. But such use is rare ; it is only indicative, 
only points out objective things. It is only in the school- 
boy period, and only there because of false methods of edu- 
cation, that a boy looks for a subject with something to 
point to — the north or the south, the mountains, the sun, 
moon or stars — because such actions of the body are only 
occasionally introduced in life and merely supplement 
words. The highest function of pantomime is manifest- 
ation. The simplest words, as "good-night," can be 
rendered by manifestive vocal expression and pantomime 
in a hundred ways. Representation confines it to one. 
Take a simple phrase like, "he fell." Representative 
pantomime becomes ridiculous and can only indicate 
vaguely and indifferently the direction or location of the 
fall. But manifestive pantomime can reveal the feelings 
of the man who contemplates the fall. It can show that 
the fall was comical, was dangerous, that it was a moral 
fall, a literal fall, a fall to be regretted or to be rejoiced 
over, a fall that caused surprise or awakened anger, a fall 
that brought ruin or escape to the innocent. 

Besides, the element of manifestation is always present. 
The positions of a man manifest, they do not represent 
the conditions of his soul. The actions of the face mani- 
fest the feelings of the mind. This manifestative ele- 
ment is never absent, the representative is only there 
occasionally and only in descriptive passages. Again, 
representation only belongs to the hand and arm, while 
manifestation belongs to the face and the whole body. 
Great oratory has little or no representative element in 
voice or pantomime. A great poem requires the simplest 
and most delicate manifestation. 

Some years ago a graduate from a prominent Western 
college recited an extract from Longfellow's " Building of 



Art in Expression. 131 

the Ship." The last part contains the well-known apos- 
trophe to the ship of state : 

"Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State; 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great ; 
Humanity, with all its fears, 
With all its hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ; 
We know what master laid thy keel, 
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel," etc. 

Instead of feeling the spirit of patriotism ; instead of 
rising to the grand emotional condition which dominated 
the poet, and which must dominate the man who reads 
it, unless he is imbued with the basest perversion of art ; 
he marked out with his arms the direction and outline of 
the keel ; held up his arms to represent the ribs of steel ; 
made one hand an anvil and beat upon it with the other 
to represent "what hammers beat" ; drew his arm down 
as if his hand grasped the handle of the bellows, to 
represent the forge, and so on. A more ridiculous per- 
formance can hardly be imagined, yet the mode of deliv- 
ery had been given him as the best means of interpreting 
the poem, by a leading elocutionist of this country. 

Take another case. A young man gave a recitation 
once of a part of Tell's apostrophe to his native mount- 
ains, from the play by Sheridan Knowles : 

"Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again ; 
I hold to you the hands you first beheld, 
"To show they still are free. Methinks I hear 
A spirit in your echoes answer me, 
And bid your tenant welcome home again." 

Here, instead of seeing the grand pictures rise before 
his mind, and feeling the thrill in his soul by the assimi- 
lation of the patriotic spirit, he showed us where the hills 
were. When he expressed his joy at their freedom, he 
held his hands as if handcuffed and broke the handcuffs. 



132 The Problem. 

When he endeavored to represent the effect of his feeling- 
their welcome to him, he took one hand and shook the 
other as if they literally shook hands with him. 

It may be said that these are extreme cases. And so 
they are ; but these students had been taught, I am sorry 
to say, by elocutionists of prominence. However, let us 
study the art of a leading elocutionist. One of the leading 
readers of this country, who has been around the world, 
comes to my mind. In giving Shylock, he does not have 
any internal sympathetic assimilation of character, but he 
adjusts his head, his limbs, his throat; every thing is 
aggregated and adjusted, nothing is unfolded. There is 
no internal link of unity. The voice as it comes out is 
the result of an elocutionary trick in the throat. It is 
mere throatiness, a mere mechanical effect without any 
psychic cause. Any actor who went upon the stage with 
such a tricky use of his voice would be hissed off, or 
should be. Such work may serve as an exhibition for 
people who merely want to see what a man can do with 
himself, but there is not a particle of art in it. It is not 
even representative, it is a miserable substitution of a 
trick for genuine expression. Hundreds of illustrations 
could be given of the same kind. One of the saddest 
things regarding public recitation is that ordinary audi- 
ences rarely see the difference. They have little con- 
ception of the violation of the fundamental principles of 
art as applied to interpretative reading. 

Then again, note the difference between good acting 
and bad acting. Booth, our most artistic American actor, 
brings out a psychic link of unity so that one always feels 
that the acting is a real manifestation. He does not 
assume the character by any external trick. He does not 
bring a great labored grasp of the muscles of the throat 
such as elocutionists have so long taught as necessary for 



Art in Expression. 133 

characters like Shylock. There is not the least hint of 
merely an exhibition of " doing things." We feel that 
there is an instinctive and intuitive assimilation of a 
character, and no mere external mechanical aggregation or 
trickery. There is representation, but it is always trans- 
cended by manifestation. 

Here, on the contrary, is one of our elocutionarily- 
trained hopefuls, taking for example, old Gobbo. Legs 
are stiffened, knees are bent, back is humped over, hands 
hung out, the voice artificially thrown into a piping 
sound. Any one can see that all is mechanical. There 
is no link of sympathy, no inner union of all these 
external signs, no evolution from within, but all is aggre- 
gated and mechanically adjusted. 

Representation and manifestation must go together, 
and the highest representation is not imitation. When 
every thing is objectively aggregated the art is low, unsat- 
isfactory and hollow. There must be, if there is to be 
any expression at all, the objective manifestation of some- 
thing subjective. There must be subjective assimilation, 
not objective aggregation. When this, character of old 
Gobbo is properly rendered there is an instinctive, intui- 
tive conception of the character. There is a subjective 
assimilation of the feeling of the old man. The textures 
of the muscles, having been thoroughly trained, are 
responsive to the sympathetic assimilation of the charac- 
ter, every movement of the whole man is the harmonious 
evolution of the conception, so vividly realized that every 
thing seems to come from within outward. The voice 
may not be so- sharp and piping but it is true to nature. 
It suggests far more than any thin, artificial, mechanical 
piping which has no relation to the mind. The one 
method is by external imitation, the other is by sympa- 
thetic and instinctive assimilation revealed by the harmo- 



134 The Problem. 

nious co-ordination of artistic manifestation and repre- 
sentation. One is the lowest form of art, if in fact it 
can be called art at all, for there can be no art without 
unity ; the other is the rendering of the spirit of nature 
in accordance with nature's own processes and laws. 

One of the greatest and most artistic performances 
ever produced upon any stage, is Mr. Henry Irving's 
Louis XL Here all is unity, the hands, the face, the 
feet, the voice and every part completely correspond; 
there is a consentaneity of the whole man. The process 
by which the character is adequately and correctly repre- 
sented is essentially a union of the manifestive with the 
representative, the manifestive transcending at all times. 
The same is true of his most powerful and artistic per- 
sonation of Dr. Primrose. There is absolutely no trick. 
All is so harmoniously blended that every thing seems a 
part of an organic body of which his imaginative concep- 
tion is the soul. At no point does he make an exagger- 
ated aggregation or extravagant motion for the sake of 
exhibition. All is in harmonious co-ordination ; it is not 
an exhibition, it is the revelation of a soul at every step 
and in every motion. 

This principle is shown us by Ellen Terry in Olivia,, 
a part which never seems to have received due praise. 
An elocutionary student commenting on the action when 
the terrible revelation is made to Olivia, was heard to 
remark, "she does hardly any thing at all," "any body 
could do that." In fact, the actress becomes absolutely 
still ; she does not moan and groan, but is stricken down 
just as a woman of such a beautiful character would be. 
There is no tearing explosition of passion ; Olivia is too 
deep and lovely a character for that. But alas, an artist- 
ically-perverted public wanted to see a display of the 
wringing of hands and the tearing of hair, or exhibition of 



Art in Expression. 135 

groans. Those whose hearts were open were thrilled by 
the unparalleled repose, the force and struggle of a great 
soul in its realization of an awful fact. The greatest 
passion in nature does not make the greatest display. 
Just before the revelation is made, she is carried away by 
an exuberance of joy; and in such a demonstrative mood 
there is a great deal of movement ; but in either case 
there is little or no representation. In fact, this artist 
among those of our time, uses the greatest amount of 
manifestive and the least number of representative ele- 
ments. Contrast this wonderful artist with a realistic 
actress like Sara Bernhardt. Ellen Terry manifests the 
depths of the soul, Bernhardt merely represents the 
literal details and accidents of excitement. The one 
appeals to the imagination, and makes us think and feel ; 
the other appeals only to the eye and makes us stare. 

Another illustration may be found in Mrs. Kendall's 
rendering of the wife of the iron master. Notwithstand- 
ing her voice, in the scene where the perfidy of her lover 
is revealed to her, the powerful pent-up and controlled 
passion escaping only by the subtlest movements pro- 
duces a great effect upon the audience. Every act 
appeals to the mind and soul. 

Now if all this is true of the stage and of public read- 
ing, how much more must it be true of the delivery of the 
public speaker. Of all things in the world an aggregated 
delivery is the worst, and most foreign to true oratory. 
Yet in much of our public speaking the law seems to be, 
the more earnest the speaker or the greater the passion, 
the more must there be of loudness and muscular energy. 
Never was any thing more false to nature. The more 
intense the passion, the more hushed the voice, is nearer 
the truth. So long as a passion keeps its demonstrative 
character, it may increase in loudness, but the very 



136 The Problem. 

moment the element of control enters, that very moment 
range of voice increases rather than volume. Loudness 
increases as passion tends to destroy control, while the 
resonance of the voice increases with diffusion of passion 
under retention. In short we can see, after this analysis, 
a further explanation of the severance of personality from 
delivery. When delivery is poor, nearly all will be found 
to be representative. The speaker has worked upon his 
execution from this point of view ; and his real personal- 
ity is not shown because this can only be revealed by 
manifestation. The idea of the mind may be represented 
bywords; objective actions outside of us can be repre- 
sented occasionally by motions and tones, but the soul 
with its deepest and most mystic experiences can only 
be manifested ; and it is precisely this experience which 
has power over our fellow-men, and which is needed for 
the interpretation of truth. 

There is a difference in the degree of representation 
and manifestation, in the different forms of expression. 
Acting has essentially most of representation ; while ora- 
tory, so far as emotional expression and delivery are 
concerned, has most of manifestation. Public reading is 
mixed, containing at one moment almost as much repre- 
sentation as acting, and again it is fully as manifestive as 
oratory. Neither form is ever found entirely alone. It 
is the union of the two that makes art. Again, there are 
different modes of representation — dramatic, verbal and 
others. Oratory has more of verbal representation, while 
acting has more dramatic representation. There can be 
no mechanical division of oratory from acting. Good 
story tellers are always dramatic ; and good orators nearly 
always belong to this class. The most dramatic men of 
our times have not been actors. Few actors, if any, can 
compare with John B. Gough, Henry Ward Beecher and 



Art in Expression. 137 

Abraham Lincoln. Even the most successful teachers 
and business men have this instinct strongly developed. 
It is absolutely necessary to any one who must see a 
truth from many sides, or as different men see it. It is 
fully as much an oratoric as it is a mimetic instinct. The 
mechanical methods of acting in modern times tend to 
destroy it, so that often we see little of it on the stage. 

One of the most advanced forms of dramatic writing is 
the monologue. Not only has all Browning's work been 
written in this form, but a vast number of other authors, 
not only in this country and England, but also in France, 
have adopted it. The monologue can only be rendered 
"by means of public reading ; it cannot be acted. If the 
monologue, as many think, is an advance over the drama, 
then public reading must be in advance of acting as a 
form of histrionic art. The difference between public 
reading and acting as arts, is that acting is more repre- 
sentative and reading more manifestive. A monologue is 
more suggestive to the imagination, more manifestive of 
feeling, and there is less "business." There is a greater 
call for all the subtleties of facial expression and less call 
for mere adjuncts. It is thus more subjective, more 
suggestive, appeals rather to <the imagination than to the 
eye and affords a far more subtle study of character, in 
many respects ; and the wonderful possibilities before it 
as a form of dramatic art are incalculable. 

Good acting, however, has a manifestive element as 
well as a representative, but as has been shown, the 
tendency of modern art is toward the subjective, toward 
greater manifestation of feeling. If this is true it will be 
natural to look for a greater emphasis of public reading. 
There was a report abroad that Henry Irving and Ellen 
Terry would take the play of Macbeth and travel with it, 
reading and acting only the special scenes between Mac- 



138 The Problem. 

beth and Lady Macbeth. Had they done this, or if they 
do it yet, it will mark what I consider a great advance, 
and will not only reach a greater number of people, but 
will stir the imagination far more affectively than any 
stage representation. 

Some one will ask, how reproductive art can have a 
manifestive element. According to the common opinion, 
a reproductive art is a mere mechanical process ; and, if 
there is any expression in it, it is not at all due to the 
reproduction which is simply the result of a copying 
process. But when we come to think of it, can there not 
be an artistic wood-cut ? Can there not, in other words, 
be an artistic reproduction of an artistic work? Note, 
for example, the reproduction of George Fuller's paint- 
ings by Mr. W. B. Closson. Take his wood-cut of the 
Winnifred Dysart, for which he received a medal at the 
Paris Salon. Did Mr. Closson simply represent or simply 
copy the painting of Mr. Fuller ? Certainly not. Of all 
works of art, a copy is the poorest. The traveler finds 
in the Pitti and the Ufizzi, and in all the great galleries, a 
vast number of painted copies of Raphael and the old 
masters. Every little detail is copied out accurately so 
far as mere externals go. But who is satisfied with such 
a copy? It is a correct copy, but the spirit is entirely 
lost. It is a mere representation of the external. That 
in fact is all that can be represented. The manifestive 
elements of the work are always the elements that are 
lost by the mere copyist. He has no soul to see the mani- 
festive elements. An artistic engraver's reproduction of 
a painting may not be a mere copy, because the same 
colors are not used. The reproduction of a painting by 
a wood engraver is a reproduction in black and white of 
the same spirit in a different sphere. Thus the artistic 
engraver studies carefully his work of art. He gets into 



Art in Expression. 139 

its spirit. He realizes in his imagination what the orig- 
inal artist saw and felt, and from the thorough and sym- 
pathetic insight into the work of art, feels and sees a 
conception which is as near the original as his person- 
ality will admit ; and this conception, which is essentially 
the engraver's own, enables him to interpret the painting. 
All true reproductive art must be interpretative. To be 
interpretative there must be more than mere represent- 
ation. There must be a manifestive element. This 
artistic instinct is fundamentally necessary to artistic 
reproduction. Without it the work will be merely an 
external shell whose soul is gone. 

This is the reason why even the best photographic 
process is imperfect. Photography is a great art, and we 
prefer the photograph of a great picture to a mechanical 
copy ; but still, these reproductive processes are always 
mechanical. They lose something of the spirit, although 
they suggest much of the fundamental feeling. We feel 
that there is a getting away from personality. As some 
one has remarked, the difference between a photograph 
and a painting may be clearly shown by taking figures and 
draping them exactly like Raphael's Sistine Madonna ; 
the original effect will be absolutely lost. There is a 
manifestive spirit pervading all such work, which can 
never be attained by mechanical processes. The artist's 
soul must intuitively and instinctively feel its way toward 
a revelation "from within out." No photograph of the 
Dysart could ever produce the effect which Mr. Closson 
has produced in his wonderful wood-cut. Nor can a 
photograph ever give us the interpretation of Rembrandt's 
portrait of his mother, as given by Mr. Closson in his 
new art. The reproductive artist must be true to his 
original, as the so-called creative artist is true to nature. 
He must give the spirit and not the letter. 



140 The Problem. 

But expression is not wholly a reproductive art ; the 
true oration is written for delivery, and not to be read 
upon a sofa. A true drama is written to be presented by 
histrionic expression, and much is left unsaid, for the 
histrionic artist can give it more adequately than is possi- 
ble for words. Delivery is the most subjective form of 
art. Here, above all places in the world, a man must 
speak ■" not merely to men but only to mankind," and it 
is the subjective element that enables him to speak to 
mankind. He who recites a great poem is not merely a 
reproductive artist, he must create again the poem ; many 
things must be his alone. The emotion, the experience, 
even the pictorial images, must, to a great extent, be his 
own. Often a great actor has revealed new beauties in 
a work, to the author himself. 

This may be illustrated from Bible reading. When a 
clergyman reads the Scriptures objectively, every thing 
appears dictatorial, or at least dogmatic or didactic ; it 
seems as if he said to men "This truth is for you, not 
necessarily for me." One of the greatest teachers I ever 
knew once said in regard to reading the Scriptures, " You 
must enjoin the truth upon yourself and upon other 
men." Whenever the Scriptures are read without first 
being enjoined upon the speaker himself, whenever they 
are read as an intellectual lesson, merely as something 
for men to know, or as so many words, the performance 
becomes tame and flat. It inspires no realization of 
worship. No conception is awakened that it comes from 
God. Above all things it is worst when read represent- 
atively. No affectation is worse than this. But when the 
Bible is read as if the reader's heart and soul were talking 
with God, listening to God and feeding upon his truth, 
how different the effect ! And yet Bible reading requires 
the utmost reverence for the letter of its original. 



Art in Expression. 141 

Thus it can be seen that delivery involves both repre- 
sentative and manifestive elements ; that the represent- 
ative elements are more intellectual, the manifestive 
elements more emotional in character, and that the repre- 
sentative element is chiefly the work of the writer, so 
that delivery itself is chiefly manifestive. And as the 
highest art-work is a union of manifestive and represent- 
ative elements, so in delivery the chief aim is simultane- 
ously to represent ideas of the mind, and to manifest 
emotions and conditions of the soul. A writer can 
embody his thoughts by mere representative symbols, 
but the subjective realization of the soul, the intuitive 
unfolding, the germination of the truth, its consequence 
to human character, the experience it awakens, can only 
be given manifestively. Subjective experience can only 
be signified and suggested ; it cannot be symbolized. 
Experience can be manifested through voice and action 
in connection with the representation of words. Many 
able men are often heard to say, "Truthfulness is more 
important than truth." And yet how often do these very 
men who see the bearing of this in life, fail to see the 
application of it to expression. Truth is general and 
apprehended by the intellect, and is expressed by repre- 
sentation ; while truthfulness is a quality of individual 
character. It cannot be represented, it can only be 
manifested. If a man speaks and professes truthfulness 
directly in words, this causes doubt to spring up in 
others' minds. It must be shown indirectly, uncon- 
sciously, manifestively by voice and action ; not the 
narrow artificial use of these according to rules, but the 
true noble spontaneous union of these with words as 
nature intended. Thus the great problem of delivery 
is to unite the manifestive elements to the representative, 
to realize the depths of experience in relation to truth, 



142 The Problem. 

and to manifest these with that truth so as to interpret it 
and to lead to its adoption. Words alone are not adequate 
to convey a correct impression and secure a deep realiza- 
tion of the situation. This can only be done through 
manifestation. 

From this we can see the importance of the work of 
training the delivery of public speakers. The true aim 
-of the education of the public reader, the professional 
artist, or the orator, must be to enable him, not merely 
to represent, but to realize the profounder elements of 
truth and emotion, and to manifest this experience so as 
to interpret and impress more strongly the truth object- 
ively represented. 

Notwithstanding these facts, we find in the present 
methods of educating speakers, that all work is devoted 
to thought. There is no work for the imagination or for 
the development of emotion. The lawyer is taught a 
knowledge of law, the preacher is given a knowledge of 
Hebrew, Greek and Theology, and an understanding of 
.the framework of sermons. But what work is done for 
the development of those faculties of the soul, upon the 
action of which speaking absolutely depends ? The little 
that is done for delivery is in the way of external criti- 
cism of faults, and endeavors to make the man conscious 
of these, with mechanical rules for conscious obedience. 
There is no work for the training of the real man for the 
development of his nature by inspiration and training, so 
ihat these faults will be thrown off unconsciously. Nor 
is there any where any known recognition that all delivery 
is previously manifestive, or subjective rather than repre- 
sentative or objective. 

Expression does not fill men from without ; it draws 
out from within. No man can give feeling to his fellow- 
.men, he can only awaken it. The highest expression is 



Art in Expression. 143 

showing to others what we possess. The greatest mani- 
festation is simply the revelation of the finite soul 
endeavoring to comprehend the infinite. By a link of 
sympathy, by an intuitive appreciation of the situation we 
can realize the many phases of experience ; and one soul 
is able to represent to another the ground of its convic- 
tions, and to manifest simultaneously, consciously and 
unconsciously, the motive dominating the life, the feeling 
and the passion inspiring the whole man. 

Verbal expression is necessarily representative; and 
the education of delivery must consist in the development 
of the natural languages, so as to co-ordinate their mani- 
festive power with the representative character of words. 
Here we see the most important relationship of expression 
to art. We have found that the union of the manifestive 
and the representative is the highest characteristic of 
great art in any form. And if all art is the projection of 
the human, the soul's appropriation of matter for self- 
revelation, a domination of man over things, we can see 
the fundamental root of this principle. So that in educat- 
ing delivery, we can come back with these elements of 
art and re-apply them to make that delivery perfect, art 
itself becoming a mirror to show us what is needed. 



VIII. 
HISTORY AND EXPRESSION. 

The unimagined good of men 
Is yearning at the birth. 

— Emerson. 

Has expression any history? or is it some fixed and 
eternal thing, not affected by "the development of the 
collective spirit " ? To enter into a full discussion of the 
historical changes through which expression has passed, 
would be to attempt what has never been undertaken, and 
would require a volume. Yet it is too important a phase 
of the problem of delivery to be wholly omitted. 

Hegel's discussion regarding the development of art 
may possibly throw some indirect light upon the subject. 
He divides the arts into periods. The first is Symbolic, 
where matter transcends the idea, the idea not being 
clearly manifested or even able to permeate its material 
fully. The second is called the Classic period. Here the 
idea finds its form, permeates its material, and there is a 
perfect balance between them. The third period is the 
Romantic or Christian, where the idea transcends its 
form. Here the artist feels that the idea he wishes to 
express cannot be completely embodied, that it belongs to 
the spiritual and eternal and can only be suggested. The 
chief classic art is sculpture, while the chief Christian 
arts are painting, music and poetry. Sculpture occupies 
the three dimensions of space, painting requires two, 
while music passes entirely beyond all limitations of 
space. While some may doubt whether all art must nec- 
essarily follow these steps, and that this furnishes a true 



History and Expression. 145 

philosophy of the development of all art ; yet all acknowl- 
edge that this is true of Egyptian, Greek and Christian 
art, and their relation to each other. 

Has there been in oratoric delivery a correspondence 
between its successive changes and this histrionic or 
philosophic unfoldment of art ? Let us look only at one 
phase, and this rather as an illustration of the principles 
already laid down, and as a preparation for our further 
investigation, than as a discussion as full as such an 
important subject demands. 

The difference between Greek and Christian art, in 
respect to the elements of representation and manifest- 
ation, explained in Chapter VI, must be seen at once. 
Greek art was perfect as far as it went, but it attempted 
little more than to reproduce characteristics chiefly phys- 
ical and objective, separate from the personality of the 
artist. Hence sculpture was its favorite and highest 
form. But Christian art deals with the deepest emotions 
and conditions of the human soul. One treats of man's 
physical life, of physical beauty ; the other of his spiritual 
life, of truth and beauty of soul. One deals with time, 
the other with eternity. One was a perfect balance 
between the ideal and its material embodiment ; in the 
other the ideal rises above all balance with physical 
matter. The depths of the human heart came more into 
consciousness, and facial expression was studied and 
embodied in art. Suggestion is an essential law of all 
Christian, or as Hegel calls it, Romantic art; because 
there is an endeavor to reveal that which is too deep, too 
infinite, to be more than hinted at. The art of expression 
is simply an art of intimation. Hence we see that Chris- 
tian art must necessarily be manifest ive and more or less 
imperfect when judged by the old representative stand- 
ards. For "to express the infinite we must suggest 



146 The Problem. 

infinitely more than we express." And even in the 
technical execution there must be a decided suggestion of 
its inadequacy. 

The difference between Greek and Christian art was 
never more clearly defined than by Browning in Old 
Pictures in Florence. 

Growth came when, looking your last on them all, 

You turned your eyes inwardly one fine day 

And cried with a start — What if we so small 

Be greater and grander the while than they ? 

Are they perfect of lineament, perfect of stature ? 

In both, of such lower types are we 

Precisely because of our wider nature; 

For time, theirs — ours, for eternity. 

To-day's brief passion limits their range ; 

It seethes with the morrow for us and more. 

They are perfect — how else ? they shall never change : 

We are faulty — why not? we have time in store. 

The Artificer's hand is not arrested 

With us ; we are rough-hewn, nowise polished. 

They stand for our copy, and, once invested 

With all they can teach, we shall see them abolished. 

'Tis a life-long toil till our lump be leaven — 

The better ! What's come to perfection perishes. 

Things learned on earth, we shall practice in heaven: 

Works done least rapidly Art most cherishes. 

Thyself shalt afford the example, Giotto ! 

Thy one work not to decrease or diminish, 

Done at a stroke, was just (was it not ?) " O " 

Thy great Campanile is still to finish. 

Is it true that we are now, and shall be hereafter — 

But what and where depend on life's minute ? 

Hails Heavenly cheer or infernal laughter 

Our first step out of the gulf or in it ? 

Shall Man, such step within his endeavor, 

Man's face, have no more play and action 

Than joy which is crystalized forever, 

Or grief, an eternal petrifaction ? 

On which I conclude, that the early painters, 

To cries of "Greek Art and what more wish you ?" 

Replied, " To become now self-acquainters, 

And paint man, man, whatever the issue ; 



History and Expression. 147 

Make new hopes shine through the flesh they fray, 

New fears aggrandize the rags and tatters : 

To bring the invisible full into play, 

Let the visible go to the dogs — what matters ? " 

Professor Jebb, in a comparison between Demosthenes 
and Burke, in bis Attic Orators, has shown that this same 
difference exists between Greek prose and modern prose, 
especially in oratory. " No speaker, probably, of modern 
times has come nearer to the classical type than Burke ; 
and this because his reasoning, his passion, his imagery, 
are sustained by a consummate and unfailing beauty of 
language. The passage in which he describes the descent 
of Hyder Ali upon the Carnatic is supposed to owe the 
suggestion of its great image, not to Demosthenes, but to 
Livy's picture of Fabius hovering over Hannibal : 

" ' He drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to 
his new rudiments in the arts of destruction ; and compounding all the 
materials of fury, havoc and desolation into one black cloud, he hung for a 
while on the declivity of the mountains. Whilst the authors of all these 
evils were idly and stupidly gazing on the menacing meteor, which darkened 
all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down the whole of its 
contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. Then ensued a scene of woe, 
the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue 
can adequately tell.'" 

"Brougham contrasts this passage with that in which 
Demosthenes says that a danger 'went by like a cloud,' 
with that where he says, 'If the Thebans had not joined 
us, all this trouble would have rushed like a mountain- 
torrent on the city,' and with that where he asks, ' If the 
thunder-bolt which has fallen has overpowered, not us 
alone, but all the Greeks, what is to be done ? ' Brougham 
contends that Burke has marred the sublimity of the 
'black cloud' and the 'whirlwind of cavalry' by develop- 
ing and amplifying both. This surely, is to confound the 
plastic with the picturesque. Demosthenes is a sculptor, 
Burke a painter. ' The most memorable triumphs of mod- 



148 The Problem. 

ern oratory are connected with the tradition of thrills, of 
electrical shocks, given to the hearers at the moment by 
bursts which were extemporary, not necessarily as regards 
the thought, but necessarily as regards the form. It was 
for. such bursts that the eloquence of the elder Pitt was 
famous; that of Mirabeau and of Patrick Henry owed 
its renown to the same cause. Now these sudden bursts 
and the shock or the transport which they may cause, 
were forbidden to ancient oratory by the principal law of 
its being. In nothing is the contrast more striking than 
in this — that the greatest oratorical reputations of the 
ancient world were chiefly made, and those of the modern 
world have sometimes been endangered, by prepared 
works of art." 

It seems very unfortunate to me that one so well versed 
in all that pertains to Greek art and literature as Professor 
Jebb, should have omitted entirely arty discussion of the 
difference in delivery between Greek oratory and that of 
our day. But though there is no mention of delivery by 
such a thorough writer there is abundant evidence to 
prove that there was the same difference in delivery as in 
writing. In fact, the difference must have been more 
marked, for delivery and histrionic art are nearer to 
subjective conditions and the real spirit of a man or of an 
age than prose composition or any art. Differences of 
style can be traced by the scholar, but differences of deliv- 
ery are far greater and are seen at once by all. 

As an illustration and confirmation of this, let us take 
the greatest of all Christian or Romantic artists — Shakes- 
peare, and compare him with either of the great Greek 
dramatists. There is a wordiness or externality about 
the expression of emotion among the Greeks, which is as 
different from the suggestiveness and the depth of sub- 
jective revelation in Shakespeare as can be conceived. In 



History and Expression. 149 

arranging a Greek play for modern performance the long 
speeches have to be severely cut to avoid tameness. And 
yet Shakespeare does not possess the external correctness, 
the absolute verbal perfection, of either ^Eschylus, Sopho- 
cles or even Euripides. The Greek plays are as perfect 
as a Greek temple or a Greek statue, but their very 
perfection limits them to the finite. But Shakespeare 
touches deeper chords, suggests the infinity of the human 
soul, and gives his auditor a look into the eternity beyond. 
The peculiar polish of Greek art is foreign to such intens- 
ity and infinity. 

No doubt the difference was far more marked in acting 
and histrionic expression than in verbal expression and 
structure of the plays. There could not be any more 
subtle expression in the Greek actor's face through his 
mask than "joy which is crystalized forever, or grief an 
eternal petrifaction." Some of our greatest critics con- 
tended that the Greeks were as superior to us as we are 
to the wildest African tribe. But if these could be carried 
back to a Greek theater, and should see an actor come 
striding upon the stage with his feet many inches above 
the floor and a monstrous mask upon his head, they would 
be as astonished as a country audience was said to have 
h>een at one of the leading Greek actors while making 
his provincial tour ; and if he should open his mouth and 
roar out his big voice, bringing to bear all the artificial 
resonators arranged in his immense mask, there is little 
doubt that these fastidious classicists, as was reported of 
the ancient audience, would run for their lives from 
disgust if not from fear. 

This is the special point which concerns us in this 
investigation ; for if the delivery in oratory and all histri- 
onic expression has changed, the methods for its develop- 
ment must change, and Quintillian can no longer furnish 



150 The Problem. 

the model for the development of the modern orator. 
We have also possibly in this one reason for the odium 
against elocutionary training, which, as is well known, is 
more intensely felt by those most completely dominated 
by the highest modern artistic ideas. That there must 
be some change no one can deny. The modern orator 
no longer has two or three years to prepare his oration. 
No such opportunity comes to him as came to Demos- 
thenes when all the patriots and scholars of Greece 
journeyed to Athens to hear his immortal oration, On the 
Crown. Has, then, the art of oratory been supplanted by 
printing, and was oratory an art belonging only to a 
period of general ignorance ? There can be nothing more 
after Greek art, has been the cry in sculpture, in painting, 
in poetry, in oratory, by those who only look backward 
in all ages. But we know when we come to study art 
that there has been an advance. There was a time when 
a comparison of the art of Shakespeare with the art of 
Sophocles would have provoked a smile, but that time has 
passed. There was a time when a comparison of Raphael 
or Michael Angelo with Greek painters would have been 
received with the same sneer, but that time was so long 
ago that it is almost forgotten. What an outcry would 
have gone up at one time at a comparison of a Gothic 
cathedral with a Greek temple, but the sneer has long 
been hushed. Only in sculpture do the Greeks remain 
supreme and unsurpassed. 

A change in one form has always caused a change in 
others, and in fact we find that while there have been 
very few changes in the elocutionary method of develop- 
ing delivery, yet delivery itself has changed gradually 
with the changes in literature and art. Not only all 
oratory, but every form of histrionic art has undergone a 
like transformation. Often the bad habits of expression 



History and Expression. 151 

have been directly or indirectly due to the incongruity 
between the methods of developing delivery and the 
artistic spirit of the age. Antiquated methods, when 
followed, lead to artificiality, while those who condemn 
such methods are led to the opposite extreme of rejecting 
all training, allowing their expression to be born of 
impulse or random caprice. It is a recognized fact that 
many of our best orators have corrected serious faults 
and developed their delivery by observation of nature and 
a careful study of themselves, independent of conventional 
elocutionary systems. 

Modern oratory especially differs from ancient oratory, 
in possessing greater subjectivity. Christian oratory 
must have greater intensity, and therefore must necessa- 
rily have less external perfection. It must deal with 
truths more spiritual and internal, and can no longer, as 
was the case with Greek and Roman orators, aim for 
grace as a definite object for its own sake. This same 
principle must govern public reading and every form of 
histrionic art, for the aim of the highest Romantic art is 
expression and not exhibition. The problem which 
weighs heaviest upon the human mind is the interpreta- 
tion of the infinite in the human soul, and the infinite of 
eternity. Whatever is related to these is of most pro- 
found interest to every human being. Soon or late, all 
art will be judged directly or indirectly from its relation 
to human life and character. 

Again, modern speaking is more extemporaneous and 
more spontaneous; extemporaneous not as to subject, but 
as to manner and delivery, and intense embodiment of 
the human soul. It must be less deliberative in the use 
of the natural languages, because a more direct embodi- 
ment of the activity of the human soul. The spirit of 
Romantic art absolutely disproves the dictum which st"l 



152 The Problem. 

has its advocates, that nothing is artistic unless it is 
brought into the realm of deliberation. That no gesture, 
for example, is artistic unless we know exactly why we 
make it and when we make it. 

Even in the acting of the present time one hears of the 
"Old School." Some of the best of the older actors 
have a style of acting which is absolutely different from 
the best actors among the younger men. In fact, since 
Talma the whole declamation of the stage has changed, 
and the change is in exact accordance with the change in 
other forms of art. It is a change, though less in degree, 
that corresponds with the difference between Greek art 
and Christian art. It is not a mere difference of individ- 
uals, but of styles caused by the spirit of the age. The 
same differences are seen in public speaking. As one 
compares the speaking in the largest cities, with that in 
a district remote from the most advanced centres of cul- 
ture, the same difference is noticed. The man who has 
not come into contact with the spirit of the time espe- 
cially manifests in his delivery the method of the past, 
while those most advanced in culture, who have come in 
contact with the artistic and scientific spirit of the time, 
show greater simplicity and subtlety, more intensity and 
variety, more manifestation and less representation. 

Part of this difference may be due to the difference in 
degree of education, but not all ; for often the one far 
from the metropolis has greater ability and is as fine a 
scholar. The difference must be because one has the 
methods of the books and the past ; the other evolves his 
method from contact with the world, from a more intimate 
connection with the artistic spirit of the age. Science 
can be gained from books and observation, but the artistic 
spirit of an age can only be gained by contact with art. 
This cannot be transported. The "carriers of art" are 



History and Expressio?t. 153 

always feeble. A man may become educated alone with 
his books ; but culture, while calling for this requires also 
a direct observation of art and a direct contact with the 
most advanced minds of his age. Oratoric delivery mir- 
rors the man and the effect upon him of his time. 

Thus we see that the various changes in expression 
and the history of art bear a direct relation to the histor- 
ical development of the character of the race. Expres- 
sion in the art and oratory of Greece was different from 
expression in the art and oratory of to-day, and it should 
be so from the nature of the case. Greek expression was 
right for that period ; it was the truthful manifestation of 
Greek life and character. Greek art was more represent- 
ative, more plastic, more like sculpture ; ours is more 
manifestative, more like painting and music. The reason 
for this is that the life of the Greeks was more objective, 
more physical ; ours is more subjective, more spiritualized, 
more intense, because of contact with the Christian 
religion and the stimulation of the subjective forces by 
two thousand years of development since their day. 
They were taken up with beauty, and the moral man 
among the Greeks was one whose outward acts were well 
balanced and proportioned ; while we are concerned with 
character, and a good man with us is not one of external 
morality merely, but one who is upright in motive. 
Accordingly it is very natural, in fact, inevitable, that 
modern expression should be different. Each age and 
nation must produce its own type of expression. History 
corroborates these conclusions, and we find in Roman 
art one of the best examples of weakness of the art spirit, 
and we are not surprised, because Roman art was bor- 
rowed from Greece. A borrowed art cannot be great. 

What must we expect, then, if Greek and Roman art 
be engrafted upon Christian times, and Ouintillian's 



154 The Problem. 

Institutes of Oratory be accepted as a standard for the 
development of oratoric delivery to-day ? This work was 
prepared with great scholarship and was written in finest 
Latin and the most beautiful style. It contains a great 
number of references to the Greek and Roman orators 
and the opinions of earlier writers. Thus for the purpose 
of history the book is of great value ; but for the purpose 
of instruction it is absolutely wrong. It was written in 
the days of the decline of oratory and art, and can not 
give us the best methods of the greatest teachers. It 
looks at everything from the standpoint of appearance. 
All that is said regarding delivery is upon the mere out- 
side of the subject. So that granting it represents ade- 
quately the methods of the Greeks in developing delivery, 
and no doubt it hints at their conceptions of this work, 
in the nature of the case it is inadequate for modern 
times, because it is too objective, too representative for 
our age. A complete change has come over the spirit of 
the world ; and all forms of vocal delivery, more than any 
other art, because more intimately connected with the 
soul, must show that change. If this is true, methods 
of developing expression must recognize the difference. 

The human soul and the human body are better under- 
stood. Everything is now traced to a cause. All kinds 
of education have been reformed. The world has been 
brought to realize that the highest education results from 
stimulating nature's processes and not from observing 
arbitrary rules. The scientific spirit of the age is making 
itself felt everywhere. It is not possible that delivery 
can be developed in the old artificial way. 

In that Ouintillian's "Institutes" are accepted as the 
highest authority in methods of delivery, we find a partial 
explanation of the great difficulties to be overcome to 
emancipate oratory from stilted declamation. Austin's 



History and Expression. 155 

Chironomia, published in 1805, is still considered a stand- 
ard work upon elocution. Hundreds of authors, in fact 
nearly all, especially in the realm of gesture, have followed 
Austin as an absolute authority. The work simply con- 
sists of a gathering together of the precepts of Quintillian 
and the Greeks and Romans so far as known. Different 
positions and gestures are illustrated with minuteness. 
To show how far the world has grown during this cen- 
tury, if one of the poems he illustrates should be given 
according to illustrations by any good reader to a critical 
audience, it would appear very ridiculous. Unfortunately, 
however, we can still see similar exhibitions in all our 
schools. The gestures of the students are coached and 
given according to the same method, and are pure aggre- 
gations in all cases, or to call them by their right name, 
affectations. They have no inherent connection with the 
impulses, instincts and psychic action of the student. 

The great error of the book is, that it considers Greek 
and Roman art as the absolute standard, which we are to 
imitate under all circumstances. We have already seen 
that Greek and Roman art was chiefly concerned with 
the limbs. Of course the same was true of oratory. So 
far as pantomime is concerned, it was chiefly concerned 
with gesture. How to hold the toga was one of the 
characteristic questions discussed by Quintillian. Every 
thing is a matter of general appearance. But Christian 
art is chiefly concerned with the deeper conditions and 
emotions of the mind, which are revealed, not so much by 
motions of the limbs as by the positions of all parts of the 
body, especially by the expression of the face. The face 
is the absolute centre of all modern manifestation. The 
subtle play of the fingers in co-ordination with the face, 
and the expansions and actions of the torso, the positions 
of all parts of the body, are the most important means in 



156 The Problem. 

modern histrionic expression. Hence, Christian oratory 
is more simple and less declamatory than that of Cicero. 

There seems to have been a tendency after Demos- 
thenes, who marked the highest period of ancient oratory, 
to an exaggeration and perversion of the real truth and 
beauty of Greek delivery. We especially ought to remem- 
ber that the age of Quintillian was not an age of great 
orators. Oratory as an art, was dying. It is a beautiful 
shell with the life gone. Very beautiful it is, gleaming 
with signs of a long-past glory, but to follow it slavishly 
has had a pernicious influence upon oratoric delivery for 
over a thousand years. What was genuinely expressive 
in the Greek period, when translated and aggregated by 
the Romans, had an element of pomposity, an element of 
empty declamation in it. But when these ideas had a 
second transplanting, and above all, when that second 
transplanting was from the classic age of art to the 
Christian age of art, the absolute untruthfulness of it, 
the empty declamation and affectation, can easily be 
imagined without looking at the facts. And this is 
exactly what Austin tried to do, and what, unfortunately, 
he has done. What may have been the natural evolution 
of the Greek, and possibly of the Roman, to the expres- 
sion of emotion by great, "magnificent" motion of the 
limbs, can not be the evolution of genuine emotion in the 
modern period. In fact, Austin hardly does them jus- 
tice ; but this of course is natural, for art can never be 
transplanted. Hence, elocution has been an endeavor to 
aggregate what is not genuinely expressive. The study 
of delivery is an entirely different thing from the study 
of the thought, and after the thought and the speech 
have been prepared, the youth carefully avoids making 
a gesture of his own, for fear it may be wrong, and stands 
up to be taught what gesture to make and where to put 



History and hxpression. 157 

it in. Can there be a more false principle in art ? Has 
there ever been in any age of the world more ridiculous 
sham than has resulted from such a method ? 

We can see that such a method violates the funda- 
mental nature of expression. It must be genuinely man- 
ifestive. It must not be an aggregation. For one 
nation to try to act like another nation is ridiculous 
affectation. Peoples two thousand years apart, entirely 
different in their genius, their education and the experi- 
ences by which their characters have been moulded, can 
not be alike in expression. An artist begins to be an 
artist when he begins to be himself, and delivery espe- 
cially requires all action to be centred in the real spirit of 
the man. It is the most simple and direct manifestation of 
the soul, and must be free from all aggregation, from all 
endeavors to be like the Greek or like the Roman. The 
inspiration must be received from our own time, broadened 
and deepened by the study of all other times. 

Still another illustration may be taken of the mistake 
or the failure to apprehend the difference between Chris- 
tian art and classic art. Sheridan, one hundred and fifty 
years ago, contended that the English ought to have 
accents like the Greek, and that all inflections and modes 
of delivery should be uniform, forgetting entirely the fact 
that Greek accents were placed upon the language in the 
period of the grammarians, long after the golden age of 
oratory and histrionic art, which had brought the lan- 
guage to such perfection. 

The great difficulty of getting free from the shackles 
of declamation has arisen again and again in the history 
of the world. In one of Fielding's novels, the worthy 
Partridge is made to say regarding Garrick's performance 
of Hamlet : " Nay, you may call me a coward if you will ; 
but if that little man there upon^the stage is not fright- 



158 The Problem. 

ened, I never saw any man frightened in my life. He 
the best player ; why, I could act as well as he myself. 
I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked in 
the very same manner and done just as he did. The 
king for my money : he speaks all his words distinctly, 
half as loud again as the other. Any body may see he is 
an actor." 

We can see differences even at the present time. 
For example, French oratory is in advance of English. 
French delivery is more simple, more direct and more 
animated. The whole body speaks continually, in the 
greatest variety of movement. English oratory is pecul- 
iar in that it has almost completely ignored pantomime 
and has become very one-sided, as may also be said of 
speaking in America. But the one point which stands 
out prominently before us is the difference between the 
oratory and the instruction -in oratory. There is a 
widely diffused feeling that the oratory taught is not in 
accord with the spirit of the age. 

Is not the cause here hinted at the true one ? It is 
only the school boy, and a few readers and old -school 
orators that speak according to the elocutionary stand- 
, ards. The best speakers and actors break away from 
these methods, though taught them ever so thoroughly. 
This can only be because such methods are wrong or at 
least out of harmony with the modern spirit of man. 

Does not this give us an explanation of the stiltedness 
of elocution ? Has there not been an endeavor to place 
the rules of Quintillian and the style of Cicero upon boys 
who are imbued with the spirit of subjectivity and sim- 
plicity of Christian art and times ? The congruity is 
about equal to draping a boy in his great-great-grand- 
father's garments and sending him in such an antiquated 
costume to a public school. 



History and Expression. . 159 

Expression, thus, like every thing else belonging to 
man, has a history. It changes with every age, and true 
methods for the development of its power must also 
change. We find that the difference between Greek art 
and Christian art is that the latter is more subjective, 
more intense, more subtle and spiritual. We find, also, 
a corresponding difference in the modes of expression. 
Greek and Roman art were chiefly concerned with the 
limbs ; Christian art has more facial expression. Greek 
art was plastic ; Christian art is pictorial and suggestive. 
Greek art was more physical and representative ; Chris- 
tian art is more manifestive. While the highest art in 
Greece was sculpture and architecture, the highest art 
in Christian times is painting and music. And, as has 
been shown, the style of oratory, so far as words are con- 
cerned, is affected by this change. Hence, above all, the 
style of delivery must also have changed, so that Chris- 
tian oratory is more extemporaneous, more simple, more 
subtle and varied; one was more objective, the other 
more subjective; while one calls for a greater volume 
of voice, the other calls for more inflections and greater 
varieties of pitch and tone color. 

Hence, we can see a new phase of our problem. We 
must come back to nature. Each age and each individual 
presents new problems. We can have no superficial and 
external standard of uniformity for nations and ages. 
We must find general characteristics, general methods 
broad enough to include all nature. It is only the 
method that is uniform ; the manifestation is infinite and 
varied. The causes from within must dictate and mould, 
as the influences from without draw forth and shape the 
manifestations. 

We can see the necessity of studying this problem in 
relation to the instinct and intuition of the time. We 



i6o The Problem. 

can see also that in order to secure a new criterion for 
criticism, in order to become free from the shackles of 
tradition, there must be historical study of the different 
phases of expression. Above all, there must be a study 
of the universal principles governing expression in all 
art, that the artistic use of the natural languages of man 
may be so unfolded as to manifest truthfully and ade- 
quately the experience deep and intense, in all its phases, 
which stirs the human soul at the present hour. 

We have thus looked at the more immediate phases of 
delivery and histrionic expression. We have found that 
expression does not consist merely in something done, 
but in something revealed, not in something aggregated 
from without, but in something unfolded from within. 
The chief falsehood opposed to expression, is exhibition. 
Expression has been found not to be mere manner, but 
a revelation of the activities of the soul, a transparency 
of character. It does not consist in multitudinous actions 
or modulations of the body, except in so far as these are 
significant or revelatory. Hence, the first principle that 
must govern the development of true delivery, is that 
there must be a removal of affectation of every kind. 

All modulations of the body must be more immediately 
connected with the soul, and made in some way more 
significant. Endeavors to acquire mere grace and man- 
ner for their own sake, to assume merely the signs of 
expression, or to appeal to the eye and ear for their own 
sake, are fundamentally antagonistic to the essential 
nature of expression. 

Again, we have found that expression is complex and 
belongs to every part of the body, each discharging a 
distinct function. It is composed of many languages 
which are different in nature from each other, so that one 



History and Expression. 161 

can not be translated into any other, and yet all these 
languages co-operate together, and their distinctive differ- 
ences cause possibilities of greater unity ; in fact, we find 
in the reconciliation of these opposites, the highest 
example of harmony. We find, also, that in their com- 
pleteness, they simultaneously appeal to the two leading 
senses, eye and ear, to which all art is addressed; and 
that they show the elements of all the arts. 

As we study the nature of man's being, we find that 
these complexities of the different forms of expression 
correspond with the complexity of the soul; not only 
does each part of the body have a distinct language, but 
this language is capable of manifesting some phase of 
experience which is not possible to any other means of 
manifestation. The voice vibrates with emotion, as the 
tongue and lips mould the sound into symbols of thought ; 
the eye beams with the intensity of purpose, as the torso 
expands with the earnestness of excitement ; and the 
hand unfolds the intention of the man and the relation- 
ship of the truth to the hearer. Thus, as we study the 
nature of man in relation to expression, we find it was 
nature's intention that he should reveal all the phases of 
the soul's realization of truth ; that not only is man to 
convey truth but truthfulness, not only thought but expe- 
rience ; not only is the fact conveyed by the symbol, but 
the affection and emotion stirred in connection with it, are 
revealed by other forms of expression, so as to cause ade- 
quate and perfect conception of the truth and the soul. 
All training for the development of expression must unify 
and develop all the languages of man ; in some way the 
repressed modes of manifestation must be restored, and 
the whole soul and body be brought into harmonious activ- 
ity. All mistaken suppositions regarding the superiority 
of one language over another or any exaggerated use of 



1 62 The Problem. 

one must be corrected, and a true apprehension of the 
particular use of each in its own peculiar sphere must be 
secured. Nature's ideal intention must ever be man's 
fundamental aim. All development requires that there 
shall be no separation or killing out of any of the natural 
means of manifesting truth ; such a method must necessa- 
rily result in perversion and one-sidedness. True devel- 
opment in expression of any kind must ever secure 
harmony of the faculties of being and the agents of body. 

Expression is intimately intertwined with personality : 
it must grow with its growth, strengthen with its 
strength and change with every change. Character itself 
is the most elemental expression, and directly or indi- 
rectly affects that which is the most immediate revelation 
of the soul. 

The improvement of expression must be connected 
with the development of the man. The faculties and 
powers must be strengthened and brought into harmony. 
All expression must result from genuine thought and 
genuine emotion. Its fundamental law must be sincerity. 
One-sided views are especially hurtful. 

To prevent mistakes, the meaning of expression in art 
has been studied. All great art is an endeavor to 
embody and manifest what is mystically perceived in the 
soul ; to show not merely the body of nature, but the 
soul that animates this body ; so that a manif estive ele- 
ment is fundamentally necessary to every phase of art. 
Great painting, sculpture or music reaches the depth of 
the soul. The two essential elements in art are found to 
be manifestation and representation ; but it is found that 
the higher the work of art the more must the manifestive 
elements transcend the representative. Tracing the 
application of this to delivery, we find the same principles ; 
while expression has been found to be both manifestive 



History and Expression. 163 

and representative, yet all great orators, great readers 
and great actors have not been characterized by mere 
skill in representation, but by their power of manifest- 
ation. Just as the great artist always shows the greatest 
power in combining the two elements and making the 
manifestive transcend the representative, so has it ever 
been in oratory. 

To clear the way for the justification of the departure 
from tradition and the artificial aggregation of the past, 
it has been shown that expression varies with every age 
and every nation ; that the histrionic expression of the 
Greek must have been different from the expression of 
the modern Christian ; that while the great underlying 
principles were the same, yet, just as it is seen at the 
present time that the French differ from the English in 
expression, so still greater differences must mark the 
oratory of the modern from the Roman. Hence, meth- 
ods of development must also necessarily vary. 

It is incredible that such great progress should be 
made in all other directions, and that oratory and histri- 
onic delivery should remain the same ; that methods of 
developing them should not change after more thorough 
understanding of physiology and the human soul. If so 
great a difference between the art of yEschylus and 
Browning exists, the delivery of Pericles and Gladstone 
cannot be the same. The greater subjectivity of man 
must cause a corresponding change in the subjectivity of 
delivery ; true expression must be less and less decorative 
or external, and more and more expressive and manifestive. 

Expression must be developed by the direct study of 
the facts and principles of nature ; artificial methods 
which violate the true nature of expression can only pro- 
duce superficial mechanical results ; it cannot be developed 
by any trick or by sleight of hand, however skillful. 



164 The Problem. 

There seems no rational way except by developing the 
proper action of the mind and the soul, by bringing 
thought and feeling into greater activity and union, and 
by developing the particular power and function of each 
agency and bringing all under control. Emotion must be 
developed according to nature's intention. All hin- 
drances, psychic and physical, must be removed ; in short, 
there must be harmony of all man's faculties, co-ordi- 
nation of every agency of expression, and all must be 
brought into that unity and consentaneity which were 
evidently intended by nature. 



II. 
JJeatcfl for (gtef^ofc. 

' Man knows partly but conceives beside, 
Creeps ever on from fancies to the fact, 
And in this striving, this converting air 
Into a solid he may grasp and use, 
Finds progress, man's distinctive mark alone, 
Not God's, and not the beasts' ; God is, they are, 

Man partly is and wholly hopes to be 

God's gift was that man should conceive of truth 

And yearn to gain it, catching at mistakes 

As midway help till he reach fact indeed. . . . 

If ye demur, this judgment on your head, 

Never to reach the ultimate, angels' law, 

Indulging every instinct of the soul 

There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing! " 



IX. 

FUNDAMENTAL MODES OF NATURE. 

All nature is but art unknown to thee. — Pope. 

The problem of delivery has been studied from differ- 
ent points of view, in order to apprehend some of the 
essential elements of its nature. We have found that it 
is not a superficial or simple problem that we have to 
meet, but one that is as deep as the soul of man and as 
broad as universal education. But though the problem 
may be partially recognized, it is not at all solved. 
How can expression be developed ? This is the great 
question before us. All the investigations into the 
nature of expression, its complex character and the various 
difficulties associated with it, have been undertaken 
simply to prepare us to answer this question. In order 
to secure an adequate method, such a study of the nature 
and relations of the subject was necessary, to anticipate 
dangers and avoid misconceptions. But we come now to 
a different phase of our problem ; we must investigate 
expression more definitely as to its processes. All human 
observation begins with the most immediate and most 
apparent phenomena ; so men usually study nature merely 
from her external forms, and objective results, rather 
than from her modes of procedure. Accordingly the 
latest discoveries in science have ever been in relation to 
nature's processes. 

It is a maxim in every body's mouth, that all art is 
founded upon nature. But what do we mean by this 
phrase ? With some it merely means that there must be 
external conformity, or likeness to results of nature. In 
a painting, for example, the drawing must be in exact 



1 68 Search for Method. 

accordance with nature's forms and adjustment of parts. 
But this can only apply to some forms of art ; and even 
in these departments this phrase cannot be literal, other- 
wise all art would be merely copying, or photographing. 
A higher view of the relation of art to nature, is that 
there seems to be a correspondence in the processes of 
production. Like an organism, all the parts of an art 
product must inhere. A work of art must seem to have 
grown, must seem to have been developed out of a center. 

In the particular phase of art we are studying, there is 
a still more important aspect in which art must be founded 
upon nature. In all oratory or histrionic art, the artist's 
tools, or the instrumental means employed, are the voice 
and body ; and these form a part of nature herself. 
Organism can only be attuned or developed in accordance 
with nature's own modes of growth. The voice and body 
cannot be built ; they can be trained, can be placed under 
greater control, or stimulated to higher development, by 
careful exercises or modes of stimulating them in accord- 
ance with the intention of nature. So that the study of 
methods for such development, more than any other 
phase of art or education, demands careful, patient and 
direct study of nature. 

It is therefore essential to know some of the charac- 
teristics of nature's methods of expression. No art can 
be founded on any mere hypothesis or theory. No worse 
misfortune could happen to any art, than that every 
teacher should have his individual system built- upon a 
narrow theory, or one-sided conception of some single 
phase of the work, and should devote his energies to the 
promulgation of this, rather than to a careful and con- 
scientious study of nature. Such a course is especially 
harmful in expression, for nature must furnish, not only 
the tools, but also the method of procedure itself. 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. 169 

Not only must we find nature's modes of procedure, 
but we must find nature's fundamental processes. Every 
thing in nature is built upon a very few simple elements. 
The varied structure of the physical world, we know from 
the science of chemistry, is due to combinations of a very 
few substances. Everywhere nature is governed by law, 
and a law is only an elemental fact common to a whole 
group of phenomena. Accordingly, if we study nature's 
modes of procedure, nature's method of growth and 
development, we find also a few fundamental character- 
istics which belong to every organism, and to all life. 

In the study of the processes of nature, especially of 
nature's fundamental methods, we have to deal with more 
complex problems than we meet in the investigation 
of mere forms and products. If a painter is to paint a 
picture of some scene, his study of nature is very import- 
ant ; all the modes by which nature distinguishes object 
from object, the colors, especially the lights and shades, 
and the fundamental elements of form, must be observed. 
But when we come to study, not nature's products, but 
modes of producing results, we are far more liable to 
make mistakes ; for then we have to study modes of 
action, and in nearly all cases, especially in all the aspects 
of expression, we must observe that which is rapidly pass- 
ing, and which can not be stayed. It is for this reason 
that the phenomena of the voice in speaking have been so 
long unexplained. In the use of the voice in singing, the 
note can be sustained so as to afford opportunity for 
more careful study, but an inflection is gone the moment 
it is uttered, to prolong it is to change its character. 
Rarely can it be isolated or even repeated, or kept before 
the mind for more careful analysis. 

But if this is true of all forms of histrionic art itself, 
how much more is it true of the art of developing expres- 



1 70 Search for Method. 

sion, for the reason that people usually do not distinguish 
the results of training from the man himself. Nor do 
men distinguish a speaker's lack of training from the 
speaker himself. When a public reader does poorly, men 
think he is not capable of doing better ; they do .not dis- 
tinguish his bad art from his possibilities. On the con- 
trary, when a man does well, it is looked upon as an 
inborn characteristic of the man himself, in no way 
dependent upon education. We often hear the remark,. 
" Such results as that can never be accomplished by train- 
ing." Even many educated men can not, from what they 
see a man actually do, conceive of his doing better; they 
are unable to distinguish the possibility and power of the 
man, from his actual performances. Above all, they can 
not perceive the hinderances arising from a misuse of the 
faculties and the agents of expression. 

Again, there are no recognized styles in delivery and 
public reading, and almost none in acting. So that while 
there are schools of art in painting, specifically and accu- 
rately defined, and though the same differences are pre- 
sented in all our public reading and oratoric delivery, yet 
rarely, if ever, do people think of different schools of 
histrionic art. Again, as regards methods of developing 
delivery, is there any well-defined, or even poorly-defined 
account of the various methods, with their specific differ- 
ences, by which oratory and histrionic art have been 
developed ? There has never been a specific method 
thoroughly worked out, which has presented adequate 
methods for all phases of the problem. All that has ever 
been done, has been the production of certain methods 
or so-called systems, each of which merely regards one 
phase of the problem. 

From all this, we can see that great care is needed in 
our investigations, for we can not make comparisons of 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. 1 7 r 

art with nature in the different phases of expression, as 
easily as we can in a statue or painting. And great 
care is needed when we seek to invade nature's own 
realm, and endeavor to stimulate her own processes and 
develop her own organisms to a higher state of efficiency. 
Any one can see the great difficulty of such a task. 

But however difficult the task, however many mistakes 
may be made, however inadequate may be the results 
accomplished, still the work must be undertaken, if meth- 
ods for developing delivery are to be shown to have any 
scientific basis. 

We have already found that expression is a universal 
characteristic of nature. Let us study the expression of 
organic life, among the most familiar objects around us. 
The leaves of the tree express the life of the tree. The 
blooming of the flower is the manifestation of the life of 
the plant. The song of the bird is the expression of its 
life and feeling. The swift curves of the bobolink are 
manifestations of its spirit. The leap of the lamb, and 
gambols of the kitten, reveal the inner plenitude of life. 

But what are the characteristics of these expressions > 
One point we specially note is, that they all come from 
within outward. All outside actions are the manifesta- 
tions of inner life, and are produced spontaneously, not 
deliberatively. The force that directly causes the rose to 
bloom is in the heart of the parent stem. There is no 
blooming flower without a store of life in the root of the 
plant. The bird's song is simply an overflow of its life 
and joy. Nothing ever grows, blooms, sings or acts in 
nature, independent of such inner impulse. Here we 
find at least one fundamental characteristic of nature's 
mode of procedure. Nature does not. build ; no organism 
has ever been constructed by aggregation. There must 
ever be internal assimilation. Every thing has its " seed 



1 72 Search for Method. 

in itself " ; such a process of unfoldment is everywhere 
present as a characteristic of life. The more nature is 
studied, the more universal do we find this law. From 
the evolution of a planetary system to the blooming of 
the smallest flower, every thing is from a center, from 
within, outward. If we take the leaves of a flower, and 
pull them apart by a mechanical process, we do not hasten 
growth but destroy life. We can increase growth only by 
stimulating the root. Nature's action is from mystic 
^forces to manifest phenomena. 

All growth in nature, then, is simply the manifestation 
of internal energy. It is true there can be no growth 
without external elements and forces, without light and 
heat, moisture and soil ; but without a center around 
which these can play and by means of which they can be 
brought into co-ordination, all will be dead. All life 
seems an emanation from a mystic center. 

This characteristic of expression in nature may be 
illustrated by the difference between an animal and a 
machine. The animal moves by means of some hidden 
force in the depth of its own being, while a machine 
moves from an external application of force. The life 
and strength by which the bird sings and flies, comes 
from its own heart. But a machine moves according to 
fixed mechanical laws, and the application of the force is 
definite, and is almost as manifest as the action itself. 

Man by some forms of training may apply force to the 
agents of expression, exactly as force is applied to a 
machine; but the result can never be other than mechan- 
ical and artificial. All true, noble expression must be in 
accord with this universal law of life ; it must result from 
impulses originating in the depths of the soul. 

All great art is dependent upon the intuitive impulses 
of the artist's nature. Without artistic instinct no. 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. 173 

mechanical dexterity, however skillful, can make an artist. 
Hence, the great point in training an artist is to so co-or- 
dinate the development of all the faculties of the man as 
to stimulate the artistic impulse and make it stronger 
and nobler. A development of these characteristics of 
nature to act from within outward, is therefore an essen- 
tial principle ever to be obeyed ; for every true artist 
seems to be dominated and inspired ; that which he mani- 
fests seems to be given him, and its very method of pro- 
duction must seem to be the spontaneous action of nature. 
And expression closest to nature as an element or form of 
art is no exception. Expression must be the external 
manifestation of internal plenitude of force and life. It 
must be the outward revelation of the whole being, with 
ail its faculties and powers as agents acting in unity and 
co-ordination, according to nature's intention. 

Wordsworth's criticism of Goethe was an illustration of 
this principle. He said that the poems of Goethe did 
not seem to be sufficiently inevitable. That is, a great 
poem must seem to be what it is from an internal neces- 
sity ; a story must seem to be told in the one inevitable 
way. Every true work of art must seem to be the 
inevitable result of an internal cause ; the hearer or 
observer must feel that it could not be otherwise without 
being degraded. 

The art of expression is the least mechanical of all 
arts. As has been shown, there is no mechanical instru- 
ment like the piano or violin of the musician, the brush 
of the painter or the chisel of the sculptor ; the instru- 
ment is the man's own organism, itself a part of nature. 
Hence, this law of nature must apply universally and 
absolutely to all phases of expression in every form 
of art. So that all true work for the development of 
delivery of whatever form must recognize that expression 



174 Search for Method. 

is simply an effect and that its cause must not be wholly 
deliberative. That the deliberative part of the work must 
be to get the man into the proper condition, to direct 
attention to the idea, or to sustain the conception of the 
situation, until the proper emotion is stimulated ; but 
the impulse itself must be spontaneous. It is a funda- 
mental error to endeavor to get an effect independent of 
the natural cause. In this respect, the art of expression 
differs from an art like painting, sculpture or music. 
The musician must patiently work until he is a perfect 
master of an instrument which is no part of himself. 
The artist, after his instrument has become part of him, 
can so play that his music seems the extemporaneous and 
spontaneous effect of the emotions of his soul. The 
deliberative element has become so hidden beneath the 
spontaneous element that it is not perceived. But in 
expression the instrument is a part of the artist's own 
organism, and while there must be patient work to secure 
control, it is still more necessary that technique must be 
concealed than in other arts. 

An illustration often adopted by those who are arguing 
for the importance of improving delivery, is that elocu- 
tionary training is the same as musical training. As the 
musician must secure control over his instrument, so must 
the speaker secure control over his voice and his body. 
And some go so far as to claim that just as the artist 
always chooses deliberately the note of the piano which he 
is to strike, so the man must choose the inflection, the 
gesture and every modulation of his organism in expres- 
sion. There is a sense in which this is true, but it is not 
wholly true, because the piano is an external instrument, 
while the voice and the face and the whole body are 
parts of man's organism, and their movements are so 
various and complex that it is not possible to choose all 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. 175 

of the means of expression. Besides, there are some 
subtle expressions of the face, and tone color which can 
not be deliberatively called out. Man is not wholly con- 
scious of the action and process by which they are pro- 
duced. Hence, the reader has an element of spontaneity 
which is different from the spontaneity of the musician. 
And the speaker having a more complex instrument, has 
something co-ordinate by which his work is produced 
which cannot be found in a mechanical instrument. So 
that his expression must be more directly the effect of 
emotions which are stimulated by his ideas. 

Again, expression is not quite the same in speech as in 
song; for, although in song the instrument is a part of 
man's organism, still the voice is made to follow an 
objective score just as a musical instrument; and men 
forgive apparent effort which in a speaker, a reader or an 
actor would be intolerable. In the case of the orator 
especially, there is also a process of thinking simultaneous 
with execution ; the ideas must be originated as well as 
expressed in words. In the case of the public reader, the 
thought is to be reproduced and carried before the mind, 
so as to stimulate emotion. Thus, in either case, the 
consciousness is not focused on mere external form, or 
the mere means of presenting the truth, but must prima- 
rily be centered upon the fundamental action of the mind. 

That men have such terrible faults in expression is 
due to the lack of this preparatory training. The various 
languages have not been specifically developed, and all 
parts brought into proper co-ordination and unity. When 
all the faculties and powers of a man are so developed as 
to act in normal co-ordination and unity, and all the agents 
of the body so as to respond to these impulses, then the 
impulse toward expression is not mere will, but comes 
from all the powers of the man, because it is part of his 



1 76 Search for Method. 

personality, and his whole personality acts in his delivery. 
His art is not an external acquirement, and his training 
has not tended to make it so, but has simply unfolded 
the natural possibilities of the man, and brought all his 
faculties and powers, and all their agents and methods of 
manifestation into closer unity with the spontaneous rev- 
elation of his personality. 

Of course, in all speech there is a mechanical side. 
Pronunciation and accent have been acquired from a 
long, deliberate and volitional struggle. These must be 
so mastered that what was at first deliberative becomes 
unconscious. But there is little of such struggle in the 
acquirement of inflection. Children, before they can 
speak a word, have very expressive inflections. 

As a further proof that all expression must be sponta- 
neous, note the fact that great actors rarely undertake to 
act in any but their own language. Salvini, although he 
speaks a little English, never acts in English. The delib- 
erate work, the conscious struggle with verbal language, 
would interfere too much with the emotional actions and 
conditions which are manifesting themselves through the 
natural languages. 

But, whatever may be our view regarding the degree of 
spontaneity, there are many violations of these principles 
of nature in the teaching of vocal expression. One of 
these is imitation. Imitation is considered by the best 
writers upon aesthetics the test of low art. Whatever in 
art is imitative is necessarily low or bad; for only objects 
of a low order can be imitated. A stick or a flower 
can be imitated, but the ocean or a mountain never. 
But there are far greater objections than these to imita- 
tion in the work of expression. Imitation is the external 
copying of what is merely accidental and superficial, and 
must dwarf the personality of the imitator. No two 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. iyy 

persons look upon any subject exactly alike, and whenever 
there is an endeavor to make the expression of any two 
people alike, a result which imitation ever produces, the 
principle of originality in nature is violated. There will 
be hinderance to the direct action of cause in producing 
its normal effect. 

Every work of art is original. Two coins may be made 
alike because they are produced by a mechanical process. 
But there are no two leaves alike in all the world. There 
are no two faces alike, no two voices alike ; nature is ever 
original, and so must it always be with true art. Every 
great work of art must therefore be an original embodi- 
ment. The worst of all modes of interfering with this 
process of nature is imitation. In expression above all 
things, every man must be developed according to his 
own individual nature. Again, no two voices are alike in 
pitch, and for one to teach another by imitation may ruin 
the pupil's voice. Many instances of this have been 
known. What is natural to one man is not natural to 
another. One man moves rapidly, another moves slowly. 
To endeavor to make all move by a uniform standard, is 
to destroy their nature. 

But it may be said, it is easy enough to see that nature 
is inevitable and original. But how can you test sponta- 
neity in expression ? One way is that whenever expres- 
sion is spontaneous, the whole nature acts. Whatever is 
spontaneous seems to come from the depth of the man's 
nature. His whole nature seems to be responsive. All 
the powers of his being are directly, or indirectly, present 
in the manifestations. Whenever spontaneity is violated 
there is a one-sidedness, and lack of unity and harmony 
among the agents producing the expression. The genu- 
ineness of expression is always shown by subtleties, so 
the spontaneity of expression is especially indicated by 



1 78 Search for Method. 

the expression of the face and the color of the voice. 
Where there is no spontaneity, these subtleties are 
always lacking ; spontaneity in expression is another word 
for genuineness and sincerity. 

Another characteristic of expression in nature is unity. 
Not only has nature an impulse from within out, but this 
impulse comes from a center, and subordinates all parts to 
this center. That is, nature's expression acts from a 
center, in all directions. There is no such thing in 
nature as absolute isolation. Nothing stands alone. 
Everywhere we find mutual dependence. No life or 
growth exists without a co-ordination of many elements. 
There is every where a " reconciliation of opposites." 
Clover was transplanted to New Zealand, but it was not 
a success because humble-bees were not also transported. 
Every new discovery in nature has been the further reali- 
zation of this principle. Every law discovered, from New- 
ton's law of gravitation to the latest phase of evolution, 
has revealed more and more the unity of nature. But if 
this is true of objects in nature which seem isolated from 
each other, how much more is it true of the different 
parts of an organism. The tree puts forth its leaves 
upon all its branches at the same time, for there is a vital 
and absolute union between the different parts of every 
organism. Death in one part means death in all. 

Everywhere, also, there is consistency. We never find 
the willow leaf on the oak-tree. Each branch upon the 
elm is similar to the whole tree. The rugged form of the 
oak leaf is in harmony with the rugged and crooked 
form of the limb. This relationship existing between all 
parts, is one of the most fundamental elements of beauty. 
In art nothing is so bad as patchwork, or any hint at 
mere aggregation. Unity is a fundamental law of all art. 
Every great work of art seems like an organism. Its 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. 179 

unity must seem to be the unity of co-ordination. It 
must not be merely mechanical proportion, or consistency, 
for unity implies diversity resulting from a central 
impulse of life. It must seem to have grown. 

But what is the application of this to expression ? Not 
only must expression seem to come from within out, but 
the whole man must speak ; it mast seem to be the result 
and co-ordination of all the faculties and powers of the 
soul, speaking through all its languages. There never 
can be true expression without this unity of all the powers 
of the man. With only the intellect active, there can be 
no great expression, nor can there be great expression 
with only the emotions active, or with only the will active. 
Any one-sidedness in the action of man's psychic nature 
betrays itself at once in expression. As the mind is a 
unity, so is expression a unity. Expression must ever be 
the speaking of the whole being through the whole body. 
The whole action of the man must be concentrated. All 
the action of his faculties must center upon the idea. 
Emotion must be a genuine response to the idea in the 
mind at the time, or the whole expression is weak and 
abnormal. Unity has never been secured by mechanical 
or one-sided methods. It can only result from emotional 
activity springing from the depths of the soul and diffus- 
ing itself through the whole nervous organism of the man. 
This principle applies to the action of the body, the facul- 
ties of the mind, and to the relation of the various lan- 
guages to each other. It applies, also, to training; for a 
machine can be built a part at a time, but man's voice 
can not be built. It can be made to grow ; it can be 
trained and disciplined, and brought under control, but 
all true training must obey the law of growth. 

Another important characteristic of nature is freedom. 
Not only does the impulse come from the center, but we 



1 80 Search for Method. 

find that nature furnishes an opportunity to every object 
to fulfill the impulses and intent of its nature. The 
flower has an impulse to bloom, and no string is found 
around the bud to prevent the unfolding ; we may find a 
sheath that clasps and prevents the premature unfold- 
ment of the delicate leaves, but this is a help, and not a 
hinderance to the unfolding flower. The life of the tree 
has opportunity for a development and realization of its 
form. Not only does the bird have an impulse of joy, 
but it has means and opportunity to manifest this joy. 
However we may regard nature, we find that freedom is 
one of her most salient characteristics. To find repres- 
sion, we must come to the realm of man. 

Freedom is opportunity to act in accordance with law. 
Freedom does not mean license. In fact, it implies an 
element of limitation. The oak can unfold its life only 
in oak leaves. We never find the lily upon the rose-bush. 
But the limitations are internal, not external. There is 
no impulse in the elm to produce poplar leaves. There 
is no impulse in the willow to produce walnuts. There 
is ever correspondence in nature between impulse and 
mode of manifestation, between emotion and motion, activ- 
ity and action, force and form. Freedom is possibility of 
acting in accordance with law ; license is unbridled dis- 
obedience of law, and sooner or later destroys freedom. 
A grain of corn can grow into a stalk ; for it is granted 
the privilege of unfolding the intention of its nature. It 
is the very law of the rose-bud to bloom into a rose. 
Freedom is the opportunity granted to any object to ful- 
fill the ends of its existence; to unfold its implanted 
forces in its own implanted way. Whatever interferes 
with the implanted impulses will fetter or defeat nature's 
normal intention. There can be no growth without free- 
dom. To tie up the plant, to draw a cord around the 



Fundamental Modes ef Nature. 181 

rose-bud, is to kill it. To put external limits of an 
extreme kind over the child's nature, is to dwarf the 
development of its character. , 

Looking at the work of man we find that there can be 
no true art without freedom. Every artist is original. 
Every great artist in all time has acted in accordance 
with law, but has disobeyed rules. There is a great dif- 
ference between a rule and law. A rule is an external 
direction established by authority, or in some way applied 
externally to the object. A law, on the contrary, is 
founded in the nature of things. Freedom is not only 
possibility of obedience to law, but true obedience to law 
produces freedom, while obedience to rule brings slavery. 
There are some rules which are formal statements of law, 
but in such cases they are no longer mere rules. 

The opposite of freedom in art is conventionality. 
There has been in all ages antagonism between nature 
and conventionality. Man on the one hand has deep, 
strong impulses in his nature, and on the other he 
endeavors by direct volition, to conform himself to the 
established standard of others. The artist who never 
rises above the mere technicalities of his art is always 
superficial. The man who lives merely in the rules that 
have been laid down, however important these rules may 
be, will be artificial and constricted. 

Thus no great art has ever been produced by a mere 
observance of rule. The great artist has always been one 
who has broken through rules, and laid hold of the prin- 
ciples of nature. He has ever broken the shackles of 
conventional authority, and obeyed nature herself. De- 
mosthenes rose above the conventional rules of Isocrates 
and the other rhetoricians of his day. Giotto broke 
through the narrow conventional precepts of Byzantine 
art, which were universally obeyed in his day. Shakes- 



1 82 Search for Method. 

peare broke all the conventional rules, the unities of 
time and place, which had governed the drama from the 
time of the Greeks. He obeyed his own instincts, and 
expressed nature as she really appeared to him. 

All the arts have had their conventional periods. In 
the infancy of an art, rules are more apt to be present. 
All mechanical art is governed by rules ; but as art pro- 
gresses, and as the artist himself rises, he is guided more 
and more by his own instincts, and a direct, careful study 
of nature herself binding the righteous law upon his own 
arm. As we study the history of art we see the effect of 
conventionality. Sameness has always resulted from 
mere slavish obedience to custom or authority. 

As we come to study that art which we have found to 
be most akin to nature, we find mechanical rules laid 
down about inflection, which are direct violations of 
nature. We find rules which have been transmitted from 
book to book for two hundred years, and some for fifteen 
hundred years. In some of our schools it is still taught 
that a question which can be answered by yes or no, must 
have the rising inflection. But no one who will open his 
ears, or who has given the slightest attention to the 
fundamental principles of nature as manifested in speech, 
will contend that this rule is true even one-half the time. 
There is, of course, an element of truth in it, but a half- 
truth is the worst kind of falsehood. In fact, such a rule 
is a mere conventional arrangement to suit somebody's 
system. If it is founded upon nature at all it is based 
merely upon the most superficial observation. When a 
teacher takes a long time to explain to students that they 
must always stand on both feet in speaking, though he 
may give physiological arguments, any one who has ever 
studied an Egyptian statue will not fail to see that the art 
of elocution is in its Egyptian period. 



Fundamental Modes of Nature. 183 

Many other characteristics of nature could be enumer- 
ated, such as ease, simplicity, repose; but these are 
sufficient to prove that if we are to have a method of 
developing expression, we must study nature's modes. If 
nature is spontaneous, free and harmonious, all training in 
expression must seek, directly or indirectly, to develop 
the instincts and intuitions of the man. The impulses of 
his soul must be made true — true to nature in her sim- 
plicity, in her ease and in her repose. All art requires 
education, but this education must not be merely one of 
technicalities. In an art which is so related to nature as 
expression, there must be a direct stimulation of nature's 
impulses, and a removal of all obstructions to nature's 
processes. There must not be a leaning to artificial 
modes of execution, nor a mere study of the outside; 
not a mere seeking to do things in a conventional way, 
but an endeavor to arouse all the faculties and powers of 
the man to normal activity and co-ordination, and to set 
free all the channels of expression. If nature tends to 
do right, we must strengthen that tendency, and open the 
avenues of harmonious manifestation. 

These modes of nature's growth are really fundamental 
laws, and must dominate all the methods which may be 
adopted to stimulate development. If they are universal 
modes of nature's action, they must be recognized in all 
education. These. characteristics of expression in nature 
show that human expression must come from impulses 
within the breast of the man, that there must be no 
external hindrance to the outflow of these through the 
whole linguistic organism. Expression must be the man- 
ifestation of the whole being through all the actions of 
voice and body. 



X. 

ARTISTIC SPONTANEITY. 

O'er that art, 
Which you say adds to nature, is an art 
That nature makes. 

— Shakespeare, 

In the study of all these principles it has been taken 
for granted that human expression is governed by the 
same laws as the plant or the animal. But ordinary views 
regard artistic action as entirely different, so that it is 
necessary to study further into the processes of the soul 
in expression. 

In man we meet with elements which are not found in 
the plant or animal. One of these is conscious adapta- 
tion of means to an end, or the power to be guided by 
experience and perception of the most proper means to 
accomplish an end. The animal has instinct, man has 
reason. The carrier pigeon may be carried in dark- 
ness by winding ways for hundreds of miles, yet when 
released it will steer a straight course for its home. The 
honey-bee that has wandered far, when it has gathered 
its load strikes a "bee line" for its hive. "A species of 
wasp stores up food of a kind which it never uses for 
itself and carefully deposits it in a fit receptacle which 
is not its own abode, for the use of its young whose birth 
it will not live to witness." The common view is that 
there is the greatest amount of instinct in the lower 
animals, and that it decreases as reason increases until 
there is no instinct and all reason in the highest man. 

Another difference is volition. The plant has no 
control over its environment. The animal has little if 



Artistic Spontaneity. 1^5 

any, while man can change or dominate his surroundings, 
whether subjective or objective. He can control the 
attention of his mind, direct it to a new object, or he can 
call up a new idea or situation, and thus dominate his 
feeling by changing his mental picture. He can also by 
deliberate choice select one of many possible modes of 
expression and adapt it to the exclusion of others. He 
may by will accentuate that mode, make it salient and all 
others subordinate. 

Hence, there must be certain differences between the 
spontaneity of the opening flower arid that of the orator. 
In the case of the plant there is only an impulse, modu- 
lated or stimulated by environment, without any conscious 
direction. The central force unfolds along the line which 
is most open, or most in the direction of the stimulus 
from without. A vine in a dark cellar will grow toward 
the light. In the animal there is the same impulse with 
something higher. Most animals can move from place 
to place. The bird can choose the branch of the tree 
upon which it sings, but there is very little choice as to 
its song, and its expression is the immediate result of 
reflex action or the unconscious, almost involuntary 
unfoldment of impulses. But man accomplishes his high- 
est results, consciously, rationally and by choice. 

As we study human expression, however, we find on 
the one hand that it may be as spontaneous as that of the 
bird, it may be involuntary or even unconscious, or on the 
other hand, it may be entirely the result of conscious 
choice, and as artificial as the product of a machine. 
Man has not only the power to adopt deliberatively words 
and symbols as the representatives of his ideas ; he can 
also take the natural signs of passion and to some extent 
deliberatively execute them without emotion. He can, 
for example, by securing control of the muscles by which 



1 86 Search for Method. 

the subtlest expressions of the eye or mouth are mani- 
fested, execute these actions by simple acts of will. In 
direct opposition to this, man can abandon himself to the 
impulses of his heart ; he can laugh from overflow of joy, 
or he can shed his tears and abandon his voice to the 
dictates of grief. 

Which form of expression is natural ? Should expres- 
sion be as spontaneous with man as with the animal ? 
Should it be entirely the result of conscious deliberation 
and choice, or can these elements in any way be united ? 
Any method for developing expression will be colored by 
the answer given to this question. 

The ordinary view is that spontaneity belongs naturally 
to animals alone or if found in man is the same as wild 
impulsiveness, and to be artistic it is held that every 
thing must be conscious and deliberative ; and that it is 
the province of education, and especially of artistic train- 
ing, to lift man out of animal impulsiveness to a rational, 
conscious and deliberative direction of every emotion and 
action. This view practically claims that man is at first 
only vaguely conscious of the faculties of his mind and 
the agents of his body and has little or no consciousness 
of their use. In this condition he is ignorant and 
awkward, an untrained, untutored savage. The course 
recommended for the correction of this, is first to make 
the man conscious of his faculties and agents and their 
languages, and his faults in their use. He must thus 
pass into a period of great self-consciousness and dis- 
couragement, but he slowly wakens to his possibilities on 
the one hand and to the fact on the other hand that he 
is a creature of habit. Thus he is made to attend to 
himself deliberatively until he corrects by conscious 
action the misuse of his faculties and their agents of 
expression. His conscious attention to himself is con- 



Artistic Spontaneity. 187 

tinued until he acquires such facility as that he can 
consciously use all his faculties and powers with ease. 
In short, he is given a conception of what to do and how 
to do it, and is set to work and kept at work until there 
is little friction in the use of his agents ; and his faculties 
and powers are under the control of conscious will. 

This is generally considered an adequate solution of 
the great problem of education, especially for delivery. 
According to this view the artist is the man who has con- 
scious control over every muscle and movement of his 
body and over every faculty and power of his soul, and 
can perform every action from the tread of his foot to the 
flash of his eye, under the direct control of will. So that 
by having perfect control of the signs of emotion he can 
"by a mere movement without any emotion himself 
cause emotion to rise in the spectator that will lift the 
hair upon his head." On the other hand he who acts 
spontaneously and unconsciously from the dictates of 
imagination or emotion is considered only a creature of 
wild impulse. According to this view spontaneity is a 
characteristic of nature, but must be replaced in man by 
mechanical expertness, and the process of developing this 
must simply be to find the expression and action of each 
agent, to bring . these into consciousness and to remove 
friction by continued practice, until all parts can be 
employed deliberatively and at will. But such a method 
can never meet the necessities of the problem as already 
unfolded. It entirely ignores some of the most important 
facts in relation to expression. 

It overlooks the complex character of the human being, 
whether viewed physiologically or psychologically. No 
man can swallow by force of will. He can push the back 
of his tongue against the fauces and swallowing follows 
spontaneously, but without this swallowing is impossible. 



1 88 Search for Method. 

All human action in some degree is a union of conscious 
and unconscious, of voluntary and involuntary elements. 
Many philosophers have conclusively shown how small is 
the realm of will and of consciousness in the simplest 
actions. The simple lifting of the arm has but few con- 
scious elements. Man is conscious of the volitional inten- 
tion and of the result, but of the process by which the 
arm is lifted the man is wholly unconscious. " It is not 
always," says Herman Lotze, "that movements proceed 
from our will ; they take place as the expression of pas- 
sionate excitement in our features and in all parts of our 
bodies, frequently without, nay, against volition ; they 
take place in forms whose meaning or use for the expres- 
sion or relief of this mental excitement we do not under- 
stand ; we weep and laugh without knowing why the one 
should necessarily be an expression of joy, the other of 
grief ; the fluctuation of our emotion is betrayed in a 
thousand variations of our breathing, and we can not 
explain either by what means or to what end these corpo- 
real agitations associate themselves with those which we 
feel within. Evidently in this way many psychic states, 
not only voluntary resolutions but also non-voluntary feel- 
ings and ideas have been made by the all-embracing course 
of Nature determining starting-points — starting-points 
which the soul, at least in part, spontaneously evolves 
from its own inner being, but which, after they have been 
evolved, call forth their correspondent movements with 
the blind certainty of mechanism, without our ordering 
and guiding co-operation, nay, without our knowledge 
of the possibility of such a process. The soul is not 
directly cognizant of the means of motion — muscles and 
nerves — nor of the manner in which they may be 
made use of — the nature of the propelling force to be 
communicated to the nerves or the contractility of the 



Artistic Spontaneity. 189 

muscles. It can do nothing more than bring about cer- 
tain states in itself, in the expectation that the connection 
of the organism will attach to these the initiation of a 
particular movement. The process by which all volun- 
tary movements are executed is concealed from conscious- 
ness ; the image of the new position to be affected, and 
the remembrance of the peculiar modifications of our 
general sense by which on former occasions its execution 
was accompanied, are the sole two points appearing in 
consciousness, to which the carrying out of the movement 
itself is subsequently attached by means of an uncon- 
scious and automatically-working mechanism." • 

Again, such a view overlooks the number and complex- 
ity of the elements of expression. The twinkling of the 
eye, the subtle motions of the face, the positions of the 
body, the modulations of the textures of the muscles, the 
motions and attitudes of the hand, the positions of the 
body, the color, the modulations and the inflections of the 
voice, and a hundred unnamable actions, all spring spon- 
taneously from the diffusion over the body of emotional 
activity springing from the depths of the soul. But they 
can never be produced by deliberative, conscious action 
of will in all the plenitude of nature. To endeavor to do 
so has always made them artificial and unnatural, and the 
expression mechanical. 

Such a view also overlooks the nature of emotion. It is 
always spontaneous. Kant first distinguished the nature 
of emotion from cognition ; but the misconceptions of 
the nature of spontaneity in expression show a failure 
still to recognize some of the most essential elements or 
processes of the human soul. 

Again, some of the worst faults in delivery cannot be 
corrected directly. They must be corrected indirectly. 
As a physician does not lecture his patient upon his 



190 Search for Method. 

disease, but gives medicine according to careful diagnoses, 
so a teacher thoroughly penetrating to the underlying 
needs of the man, by correcting these may remove a 
hundred little external imperfections. When the sense 
of balance is developed in the human body, when the 
breathing is rendered normal, a vast number of imper- 
fections disappear without having been brought to the 
consciousness of the student. Endeavors to correct faults 
entirely by the deliberate and conscious method cause 
students to be artificial. We are most conscious of that 
which is external, so the attention of the mind by such a 
method will be concentrated upon the outside, upon 
external and accidental actions. 

The view that expression must be improved by bring- 
ing all powers and agents into consciousness and under 
direct control, overlooks the nature of consciousness. 
Consciousness may be compared to the eye. The most 
powerful eye in the world can see but little without being 
focalized, and the field of perfect vision is extremely 
narrow. If one tree of the forest is seen definitely by the 
human eye, the other trees of the forest are placed in a 
dim background. Man can draw still nearer and bring 
one limb definitely into the focus of his mind, but the 
forest is lost and the tree is but dimly perceived. On 
the other hand the man can withdraw himself to a dis- 
tance and can look at the whole forest, and can go still 
further away and the whole mountain upon which the 
forest stands is perceived, but the greater the extension 
the less vivid the perception. The same is true of the 
human consciousness, which is in direct correspondence 
with the human eye. When all consciousness is focalized 
upon one idea, it tends to become what Leibnitz calls 
clear, distinct and adequate ; but if the mind endeavors 
to extend itself over a great number of things at once, 



Artistic Spontaneity. 191 

ideas become obscure, indistinct or inadequate. It is a law 
of logic that as extension increases intension diminishes. 
Accordingly, to extend the human consciousness to every 
action of the feet, the torso, the mouth, the eye, the head, 
the arm and hand, the inflections and modulations of the 
voice, will destroy the power of the mind to concentrate 
itself adequately upon any thing. The normal center of 
consciousness must be upon the ideas as they pass 
through the mind. All else should be a background to 
this. To endeavor to bring all the acts of expression 
equally into consciousness and under direct control of 
will would confuse the mind, make the ideas vague and 
indefinite and render all delivery superficial and mechan- 
ical. Besides, so infinitely complex is the whole product 
of expression, the languages are so numerous, and belong 
to such diverse agents, that it is not possible for them to 
be used consciously or voluntarily. The few that have 
tried have become superficial. A few points have been 
exaggerated more than others, and all has become one- 
sided and affected. The auditors have felt a lack of 
depth in the artist's soul. They have seen through the 
artificiality of the art as clearly as Scrooge looked through 
the ghost of Morley and saw the two buttons on the back 
of his coat. 

But let us look carefully at the difference between 
human expression that is mechanical and that which is 
spontaneous. As a man speaks to his fellow-men he has 
two classes of ideas. First, the successive ideas in the 
story he is telling, or the argument he is making ; second, 
ideas as to the manner in which he is to express these. 
Each of these classes may give rise to expression, but the 
mode by which each class causes modulations of the voice 
and body is different. One is deliberative, the other 
spontaneous. In one case expression will always be 



1 92 Search for Method. 

mechanical, one-sided. In the other case the ideas and 
pictures of the story itself coming before the mind give 
vivid conceptions of situations stimulating the imagination 
and emotions, and arousing the spontaneous impulses of 
the man. In this case, he does not act from determina- 
tion alone, but from the stimulation of the deepest 
impulses of his nature, ■ impulses which are deeper than 
consciousness, deeper than will. The will is still present, 
but it is blended with intellectual and emotional actions 
in absolute unity. The man is conscious of what he is 
doing, but the conscious volition simply directs, restrains 
and guides, holds each idea till it has more effectively 
accomplished its work upon the man's own nature, and 
restrains the impulses until they diffuse themselves 
through the whole organism. It serves to change the 
action of the mind from one idea to another and to hold 
it there. Consciousness and will act at the initiation and 
at the climax, but between the great spontaneous impulses 
of the soul are aroused and dominant. Only ideas of 
things can awaken emotion, ideas of how to do things, 
mere knowledge of modes of expression, however import- 
ant, can never furnish a substitute for sincere earnestness 
or genuine realization of truth. The one causes expres- 
sion by awakening motives, the other by mere mechan- 
ical determination and resolution. 

When expression is the normal response to the prompt- 
ings of an idea or situation grasped by the mind, then the 
will merely acts toward the other powers of the soul as 
an engineer does toward his engine. He starts or stops 
the action, and regulates its speed and its force, but the 
power comes from the steam and not from the arm of the 
engineer. So the will is ever present. It holds the 
mind upon the idea, it retains the impulses which other- 
wise would fly off too quickly and nervously, until they 



Artistic Spontaneity. 193 

diffuse themselves through the whole man. Certain great 
salient modes of execution are adopted, others are 
restrained and regulated, but no impulse to expression is 
supplied by will. It never steps down and usurps the 
place of thought, imagination or emotion, any more than 
the engineer endeavors to start the locomotive by the 
strength of his own arm. The impulse to expression 
must be deeper than will, must furnish a motive to will 
or all the results will be limited and superficial. Great 
power in expression is dependent upon power in thought 
and power of passion. Nothing makes so bad an effect 
or is felt so quickly as the mere assumption of the 
appearance of emotion or the mere resolution to be earn- 
est. Earnestness must ever be the spontaneous result of 
thought and emotion. By long and patient work a man 
may make mechanical action very like spontaneous 
action ; but it will never accomplish the complete results 
normally inspired by nature herself. Such a method 
always omits the more subtle forms of expression. The 
color of the voice, the expression of the eyes and face 
can not be brought into the field of consciousness. When 
it is attempted, the subtle, spontaneous actions are made 
artificial and mechanical. As we look "upon a man stirred 
by great ideas which are so vivid as to stimulate and co-or- 
dinate the experiences of the soul, the eyes twinkle and 
flash, the face glows, the very textures of the muscles of 
the man are modulated so that the voice vibrates with 
emotion in ways that physiology and the science of sound 
have never been able to fathom. The whole man is 
expanded and exalted; and from the crown of his head 
to the soles of his feet every part of the body is speaking. 
We can thus see that the true action of consciousness 
must neither mean its obliteration nor undue extension, 
but its proper centralization. The fundamental center or 



194 Search for Method. 

focus for consciousness in normal delivery must ever be 
upon the successive ideas, the imaginative situation must 
ever be in the foreground; but this does not forbid in 
the normal action of the human mind the subordinate 
consciousness which recognizes the effect of emotion 
upon the voice and body, the whole relationship of the 
speaker to his audience. He abandons himself not to 
mere nervous impulses, but to the impulses that come 
from the life of his soul, too deep for his own conscious- 
ness to fathom. He forgets himself, only in the sense 
that he gives himself up to a great idea of which he is 
definitely and completely conscious. He leaves the great 
fountain-head of feeling free to pour forth its flood into 
his voice and body. He becomes, so to speak, two beings 
— becomes a great channel of thought and emotion, 
great impulses come to him and are given to him, the 
very ideas themselves that rise so vividly come out of the 
dim unknown, although his consciousness holds them and 
dominates them and lets them pass away as others rise, 
while the voice and body, though restrained and directed 
in part, are ever kept in the background of consciousness 
and never displace the fundamental focus of the mind 
upon one great central idea or situation. It is the vivid- 
ness of the central idea that stimulates the conscious 
actions, colors the voice, illuminates the face, dominates 
the whole body, and brings that unity, freedom, variety 
and spontaneity which are the universal characteristics 
of nature. 

All this is seen still more definitely when we come to 
study the faults which are related to consciousness. 
What is meant by self-consciousness ? It is simply the 
displacement of consciousness. Consciousness is wrongly 
centered. The man is thinking about his audience, about 
his own inflections, about the modulations of his own 



Artistic Spontaneity. 195 

voice, the action of his own body. Consciousness is 
primarily fixed upon the modes of expression rather than 
upon the successive ideas. 

What are some of the causes of this fault? There are 
two leading causes which are entirely different from each 
other. In the one case self-consciousness rises from 
embarrassment. The speaker may be conscious of great 
power, and the importance of his thought, but from the 
fact that he feels that his mode of. expression is inadequate 
his consciousness becomes confused. He is conscious of 
the impulses of his nature, he is really and genuinely in 
earnest, but he feels that there is not a co-ordination of 
the impulses. The channels are not open. He can not 
unite the spontaneous impulses in his nature to the delib- 
erative elements. Hence, he begins to think of his body, 
the imperfections of his voice, and the inadequate modes 
of expressing his ideas. The other form of self-conscious- 
ness, though seemingly in direct opposition, is very similar. 
The man who holds the mechanical view of delivery hav- 
ing prepared every movement, being conscious that he 
has a very graceful body and a very beautiful voice, rises 
to speak. The audience feels that his consciousness is 
upon himself, as in the other, case the consciousness is 
upon the voice and body. Though he is perfectly at ease 
and unembarrassed, yet a sense of inadequacy, a sense 
of superficiality, is felt by the audience. The man has 
self-consciousness in a worse form than the other. The 
first by practice, by looking his audience in the face may 
rise above his doubt, may in some way secure co-ordina- 
tion of the impulses, and may come to know the use of 
his organs and agents, and his awkwardness and stiffness 
may wear away. The more faithful the practice, the 
more this is apt to be the case, though there is danger of 
bad habits being formed, from the lack of true control. 



196 Search for Method. 

In the other case, the more practice the greater is the 
tendency to develop self-consciousness. The point of 
view of the mind is wrong, the method of expression 
vicious ; it is only remedied when greater earnestness of 
purpose or power of conception lays hold of him, and he 
forgets the machinery of his art. 

The true remedy for chaotic consciousness is the proper 
centralization of consciousness upon the ideas. There is 
not so much in either case too great consciousness as 
there is consciousness of self rather than of thought and 
purpose. A noble unconsciousness of self in art as in life 
demands that it be fixed upon ideas rather than upon 
effects of ideas, upon the aim and purpose, upon that 
which is to be done for others, while the manner of doing 
it, the modes of execution and the impulse, must in part, 
at least, be spontaneous. # 

Thus while education may extend consciousness, it also 
develops the specific field in which ideas can be focused, 
and where they can be more vividly realized. This great 
true center of consciousness was fixed by nature, and can 
never be displaced by art. Consciousness must be deep- 
ened, as well as extended. In the development of deliv- 
ery, everything must be genuine as in nature. There 
must ever be present both the conscious and unconscious 
elements. Education develops nature's processes, stim- 
ulates her impulses and brings them into stronger unity 
and co-ordination. 

The most rapid driver upon the road, when seemingly 
letting out his steed most freely, is most alive. He takes 
a firmer grasp of the rein, is more on the lookout to guide 
the horse correctly than when he is passing along in a 
simple walk. So in expression, powerful passion intensi- 
fies impulses, but also makes consciousness and volition 
as well as emotion more alive, and all are co-ordinated into 



Artistic Spontaneity. 197 

greater unity. The driver does not leap down and push 
his vehicle, the impulse comes from the animal, but the 
reason is also active to guide and direct. By skillful use 
of the processes of education, by the great law of co-ordi- 
nation in the relation of the conscious to the unconscious, 
with a thorough understanding of the proper center, even 
unconscious impulses may be corrected and made normal 
without making them directly conscious or voluntary. 
Education is the process of stimulating and developing 
all the normal processes of the soul and bringing them 
into greater unity and harmony. This must be done, or 
expression can never be developed. 

That something more than mere mechanical expertness 
is required, is indicated by the universal instinct of the 
race, which regards the highest and best expression as full 
of life, and the worst expression as lifeless. The most 
common characteristic of life is hidden and mystic. The 
leaves upon a tree express the life, but without inner 
plenitude of life diffused through the whole organism, the 
leaves would be dead. So that what is really meant by 
living expression is that the emotion must come from 
within, that the center of the being shall be roused and 
the forces and emotional activities diffused into every 
part, just as the life is diffused in a tree or in an animal. 
When expression is mechanical, the voice can be made 
louder, there can be greater rapidity, there can be greater 
enlargement, but these are not life. All such modifica- 
tions can be performed by a machine. Life is ever spon- 
taneous. No mechanical force, no amount of will, no 
amount of consciousness, no mere deliberative employ- 
ment of means to an end, can furnish a substitute for 
spontaneous diffusion of energy through the whole man. 
True life is not manifested by loudness or by mechanical 
exaggeration, nor by one-sided exaggeration of one form 



198 Search fcr Method. 

of expression, but by the diffusion of emotion into every 
part of the body or the co-ordinate union of all the psy- 
chological impulses, and their manifestation by the most 
subtle and co-ordinate actions of every part of the body. 

Again, artists have ever recognized that all knowledge 
must be translated into instinct. Every form of informa- 
tion must be so assimilated, and so transformed by the 
personality of the man, that it is lost in his intuitions. 
"All knowledge," George Innis said, "must be merely 
the soil in which instinct is to grow." All great art 
seems to be inevitable, not only in relation to its parts, 
which must seem to be incapable of being changed, but 
it must seem to be an inevitable product of the spontane- 
ous impulses of a great soul. We have abundant proof 
that the spontaneous element in all delivery and in every 
phase of histrionic art is a most important one. From 
time immemorial, the race has used the term "artistic 
instinct." The great poet, the great painter, the great 
sculptor has ever felt that something was given to him, 
something done for him, that his deliberation and skill in 
execution were merely a carrying out of these fundamental 
impulses, merely obeying their orders. No orator or 
artist has failed to feel this in some sense. From Homer 
to Tennyson, the poet has called upon his muse. The 
muse in every art is simply the recognition in another 
way of this same fact, that man, like nature, has mystic 
impulses in his soul; that he has "unconscious reason." 
What is done seems to come out of the unconscious, the 
involuntary part of the man, which is only directed and 
regulated by volition. The ideal and the forces to carry 
it out are given to the artist, and he is not a mere mechan- 
ical performer. 

There are, then, ordinarily considered to be two views 
of spontaneity. The first regards it as merely animal 



Artistic Spontaneity. 199 

and in man synonymous with wild impulsiveness, the 
result of undirected force. The second regards it as 
synonymous with dexterity or mechanical agility, attained 
simply by the acquirement of mechanical skill. 

Neither of these views can be regarded as true artistic 
spontaneity. They both imply that spontaneity is a 
characteristic of some one phase of the man. But nature 
is never one-sided. A kitten is spontaneous not because 
it is wild, but because an exuberance of life comes from 
the center of the animal and dominates its whole body. 
As we study nature we find that the most complex 
being has the greatest unity ; and if so, the complex 
impulses of such a being must also have greater unity 
than the impulses of a cruder animal. Everywhere in 
nature we find an animal of a low order without great 
co-ordination and unity of all parts ; but when we pass 
higher in the scale of nature and come to man we find 
that all parts have more direct specific functions to per- 
form, and more intimate relation with the center. There 
is every where a greater localization of function and 
extension in opposition. But this is in proportion to the 
establishment of a mystic center and to the domination of 
this center over the parts differentiated from each other. 
If this is true,. then the highest form of spontaneity 
should be characteristic of the highest form of life. 

Spontaneity must be regarded as a co-ordination of all 
the impulses and forces of human nature into one. Thus 
only will all the difficulties of the problem be met. All 
investigations have shown that the whole man must be 
concerned in expression; and hence, that the unconscious 
as well as the conscious, the involuntary as well as the 
voluntary powers of the man, must act in expression. 
When this is the fact, spontaneity always results This 
natural spontaneity is found in children who have not 



200 Search for Method. 

been perverted. When it is made the object of education 
and by careful training is made perfect, the conscious 
direction of means to an end being co-ordinated with the 
unconscious and involuntary processes in exact accordance 
with nature's intention, then and then only have we 
artistic spontaneity. As growth in nature requires devel- 
opment in all directions, so true harmonious development 
of the human being requires all the faculties and powers 
to be developed according to their own specific nature, 
and all to be brought into a more perfect union ; the 
faculties meant to be conscious so to act, and the will so 
to move the parts of the body which are meant by nature 
to be under volitionary control, that by a mysterious 
co-ordination the unconscious and involuntary powers and 
agents are also brought into action. Any endeavor to 
make an agent or action voluntary, which was never 
intended to be so, is to violate nature and to make men 
artificial and mechanical. 

True spontaneity, therefore, does not mean an absence 
of deliberation, but the simultaneous action of the delib- 
erative, the conscious and the spontaneous elements in 
their own proper sphere, and a co-ordinate union of them 
in any great impulse. It is a co-ordination of the deliber- 
ative with the unconscious that is the glory of human 
expression. It is the foundation of all eloquence and all 
poetry. In all the provinces of art it is this which is the 
poetic and real artistic element. Every artist must have 
a long, deliberative, conscious struggle to secure truthful 
execution, but if this struggle does not rise above tech- 
nique and secure and develop the unconscious impulses of 
the soul, the man can never become an artist. The 
mechanical work is absolutely necessary, but the mechan- 
ical work alone is not sufficient, nor on the other hand, 
will the impulses and instincts, however strong and power- 



Artistic Spontaneity. 201 

ful, of themselves accomplish the result. There must be 
a union and co-ordination of the two, just as in nature in 
the lifting of the arm, there is a co-ordination of the con- 
scious and the unconscious elements. 

This further complexity of the human being also shows 
a correspondence with the fundamental languages of man. 
As verbal expression is more representative and objective 
it is more a matter of conscious choice, while vocal and 
pantomimic expression are more manifestive or presenta- 
tive, and are therefore more expressive of the spontaneous 
subjective impulses of the soul. 

The neglect of a study of spontaneity in expression is 
very curious. The cause is no doubt found in the fact 
that there has been so little study of emotion in psychol- 
ogy. Feeling is mystic ; and no satisfactory explanation 
has yet been given of the elements or even the classifica- 
tion of emotions. The distinction between the action of 
the soul in feeling and in knowing was not made until 
Kant. But emotion is still not understood. Many define 
feeling in such a way as to show that it is confounded 
with thought. One psychologist says that a study of 
feeling is difficult, because when the mind turns to ana- 
lyze it, the spontaneity of feeling is destroyed. Still 
another reason in respect to delivery is that when a man 
analyzes his delivery he only observes the conscious ele- 
ments, and the unconscious spontaneous actions are over- 
looked. Thus the subject is extremely difficult. But it 
is the most essential element in improving delivery. 

To summarize the conclusions at which we have arrived : 
Expression must ever be spontaneous — spontaneous as 
the plant or the bird. But spontaneity in nature not 
only means from within out, but in all directions ; it 
means the union of the powers and forces of the organism. 
If a kitten has one leg all tied up and bandaged, or its 



202 Search for Method. 

tail wired out in a straight line or to a specific curve, its 
movements are not spontaneous. Hence, spontaneity in 
expression demands that the whole nature of the man 
shall act — his intellect, his imagination, his emotional 
nature, his will. Voluntary and involuntary, conscious 
and unconscious elements, must combine in such unity 
that the man himself can hardly separate them by analy- 
sis. Whatever tends to make expression come from 
merely one power of his nature, from the emotions alone, 
or merely from the intellect alone, from mere conscious 
deliberation without allowing anything to be unconscious 
or involuntary, is a most fundamental violation of nature. 

Nature is never one-sided, is never mechanical, never 
has a hobby. She never accomplishes her results by a 
narrow mechanical system ; her methods are broad and 
deep and every element plays a part in every result, in 
each is all. She has no tricks which may unlock in a 
moment all the secrets of her phenomena. The devel- 
opment of expression is, thus, as deep and as broad as 
universal nature. Nature when rightly understood fur- 
nishes the fundamental laws which must be obeyed, or 
delivery can not be developed. 



XL 

DEVELOPMENT OF EXPRESSION. 

Imperfection means perfection hid, 
Reserved in part to grace the after time. 

— Browning. 

Can anything that is spontaneous be developed ? Is 
not education entirely confined to that which is conscious 
and deliberative ? We find an animal does not become 
any more spontaneous as the result of taming or training. 
Wild animals in the depths of the forest gambol and play 
with the same spontaneity that is shown by the kitten 
or the dog. The squirrel leaps from branch to branch 
with all the ease, grace and spontaneity that it has after 
it has been trained to eat from the hand of man, or perch 
upon his shoulder. The rose grows under culture by the 
same law as its crude ancestor. A more delicate and 
possibly a more varied result is produced, but nature's 
process is exactly the same. All education is necessarily 
limited. The central pitch of the voice can not be 
changed by training without injury. All education must 
act in accord with nature's principles ; but cannot violate 
or change them with impunity. 

To those that hold that spontaneous actions are simply 
the result of reflex actions of the nervous system, and are 
dependent upon health and vital conditions, and so can 
only be improved by securing greater vitality, and are 
not directly capable of education ; to those who contend 
that all man's movements must be made deliberative by 
education, and that the absence of spontaneity shows 
man's chief superiority over the animal ; to all such 
persons, the development of man's powers of expression 
is a very simple problem. It simply means bringing into 



204 Search for Method. 

conscious control all the modulations of the body or voice 
that are expressive, so as to enable the speaker to use 
them by direct choice. On the other hand to those 
who believe that delivery of all kinds is a mysterious 
co-ordination of mind and body, of the spontaneous and 
the deliberative, of conscious and unconscious elements, 
the problem is far more complex and difficult. To such 
persons this long discussion of the processes of nature 
will not seem out of place. 

Many years ago I was staggered by a question from 
one whom I consider to be the leading clergyman of this 
country, and who has inspired me with more courage and 
enthusiasm in some directions than any one else in the 
world. He suddenly asked me, "Can you teach' Elocu- 
tion ? " and probably noticing my embarrassment, he added, 
" Can any one teach Elocution ? " I know not whether 
my answer was adequate or satisfactory, I cannot remem- 
ber now what I said, but the great, earnest face looked 
more kindly, and the voice spoke more gently to the 
youthful enthusiast as the subject was changed. Through 
all these years I have struggled with that problem, and in 
fact, this work is an endeavor to answer his second 
question. 

Such a question hints at the doubt which exists in the 
minds of many of our best thinkers as to whether or not 
delivery can ever be a subject of education. There is 
unfortunately no philosophic or well-defined statement of 
the doubt; but after pondering the subject for many 
years, and trying to weigh the causes of such doubt, I 
think that it must be touched, at any rate, by this dis- 
cussion. It seems to me that the doubt arises from the 
fact that such speakers feel that somehow the spontane- 
ous element must ever be the chief one in all true oratory, 
and knowing that the ordinary methods of elocution 



Development of Expression. 205 

neglect this fact, they have thus been led to condemn all 
elocutionary training and to believe that the highest 
oratory must simply result from nature, that it may be 
slightly improved from growth in other departments of 
knowledge, and from practice, but can not be directly 
developed. But whether this objection has ever been 
made or not, it will be admitted at the beginning that 
unless methods for the development of expression stimu- 
late and aid the spontaneous element in delivery they will 
fail to accomplish any results really beneficial. Thus the 
aim here is to accept the highest and most extreme 
objection to all work upon delivery and to endeavor to go 
to the depths of the problem and show that such objection 
is rather against the mechanical methods of meeting the 
needs than against the need itself. If any such doubter 
has followed the steps unfolded, he must feel that not 
only can every phase of delivery be developed, but that 
the principle involved in such development lies at the 
foundation of all the most advanced methods of education. 
The subject is not a new one, nor is it confined to ora- 
torio and dramatic delivery. It is a question which con- 
cerns all human art and all human education. There is 
ever a tendency on the part of man to become conven- 
tional, a mere machine on the one hand or, on the other 
to become a mere wild creature of impulse. It was the 
discussion of this problem in Rousseau's " Emile " that 
started the investigations out of which have arisen all the 
advanced methods of education in modern times. The 
education of Rousseau's age consisted in every form of 
mechanical and external manipulation. Man must be 
completely transformed and moulded from the outside. 
For nearly a thousand years a degraded view of humanity 
had been almost universal. Man must be made better 
by killing out the impulses of his nature. They were at 



206 Search for Method. 

variance with the intentions of his Creator, and must be 
completely transformed by education. Rousseau con- 
tended that nature was always right ; that man must 
grow as the tree grows, and that in all true education the 
impulses must have sway. He contended that all educa- 
tion of his day transformed and perverted nature, hence 
that all human beliefs and all human conceptions were 
warped; to reform this everything must return to the 
instinct of the race and to the free light and atmosphere 
of nature to grow according to the fundamental impulses 
from within. 

Here we have two extremes, extremes which come out 
in all art and which we see especially manifested in man's 
views of the methods of developing delivery. Rousseau 
went too far in making man merely an outgrowth of 
impulse. His views were reactions against the current 
methods which had gone too far in making everything 
mechanical. And in elocution, and especially in oratory, 
it is in the co-ordination of art and nature that we have 
the highest results. The true advanced education does 
not merely educate the understanding, but awakens the 
impulses from within. 

There is no doubt, however, that the tendency of the 
majority of humanity is not in the direction of Rousseau, 
but is in the direction of the conventional regulation. 
There is a greater tendency to lose faith in the funda- 
mental instincts and impulses, even in the present age, 
than there is to become too spontaneous or too impulsive. 
The greatest and most difficult problem in education has 
been "to bring such objects before the mind of the child 
as will stimulate the faculties to spontaneous activity." 
There is ever a tendency to pass more or less to the 
mechanical. So that all reformers have struggled for the 
return to nature and the development of nature's impulses 



Development of Expression. 207 

and instincts. The co-ordination of the deliberative and 
the spontaneous has been the work of all reformers in 
education. Education that proceeds by aggregating or 
cramming into the man ideas and information is of little 
worth. Above all, the artist by his education must come 
into a thorough possession of his knowledge and of his 
own being. He must not only know how to do better, 
but the impulse to nobler action must be strengthened 
and developed. The artist, the orator, must not only 
secure skill in execution, but must have deeper, stronger 
and more accurate impulses. So in delivery, that which 
fundamentally makes the orator, must be the spontane- 
ous life in his whole nature and the co-ordination of this 
with knowledge of what he can do. 

Returning now to the simplest and most direct study 
of the problem, we find that expression is a product of 
nature. Every product implies cause, means and effect. 
Expression is the effect of rational and emotional activ- 
ity. It is the effect of the possession of an idea by the 
mind, or of the mind being possessed or dominated by 
an idea or passion. Thus we see at once that the cause 
of expression is psychic. 

The means in expression are physical. The thought 
and the emotion depend for revelation upon the body and 
voice of the man. The emotion is directly known only 
to the subjective consciousness of the man who feels it. 
It is made known to other men entirely through the 
medium of expression, or from the effects of feeling upon 
the actions, positions and texture of the body or the tones 
and inflections of the voice. 

It is regarded as a truism that effect requires both 
adequate cause and proper means. Without a co-ordina- 
tion of both of these no effect can follow, so that we can 
see at once that weakness of effect must be due to inade- 



208 Search for Method. 

quacy of cause or to inflexibility or wrong use of the 
means. Hence, primarily the power of expression must 
be dependent upon the strength of the cause which is 
directly due to the intensity of the impression or strength 
of the passion, that is to say, upon the faculties of the 
soul ; and, secondarily, upon the plasticity and responsive- 
ness of the body and voice as the agents of manifestation. 
Not only must the faculties be brought into action, and 
the voice and body be properly adjusted to their work, 
but there must also be skill in their use. 

And since man is a creative being, able consciously to 
achieve results, there must be a proper conception of the 
effect that is to be produced, and the special means that 
can be best adopted and will be most adequate to the 
accomplishment of that effect. In short, there must be 
an impulse, a responsive body, that will manifest every 
phase of that impulse, and the conscious and deliberate 
intelligence more or less separated or "estranged" from 
the rest of the mind so as to watch the impulse, to direct 
the out-flowing energy, that everything may be co-ordi- 
nated and brought into unity before the mind of the 
auditor. And this artistic intelligence must be such as 
not to interfere with the spontaneity of the cause, or the 
perfect responsiveness of the mechanism. 

Thus, to develop the power of expression, these several 
elements must be educated. If expression can be educa- 
ted at all, it must in the nature of the case be improved 
first, by the development of the proper mental action in 
reading and speaking. Not only must the strength of 
the creative faculties and those directly concerned in 
reading and speaking be developed, but greater respon- 
siveness of the sensibilities to the idea, the co-ordination 
of all the faculties and powers of the soul, and the balance 
of thought and emotion by will must be secured. So 



Development of Expression. 209 

that the whole mind shall act in all its phases, in all its 
aspects, in unity for the accomplishment of one result. 
In short, there must be developed unity and harmony in 
the actions of all the faculties of human nature. Not 
only must the power of clear thinking be trained, but 
the power of reproducing and complementing ideas with 
proper experience. 

In the second place, there must be a development or 
training of the body and the voice. There must be a 
mental adjustment of all parts of the body according to 
the intention of nature for the development of the whole 
and of each part in particular, so as to secure a condition 
most responsive to the activities of the being. 

The voice especially needs training, the whole vocal 
organism must be developed and brought into conditions 
most favorable to modulation by the various emotions and 
states of the man. Every part of this mechanism must 
be studied and developed according to the intention of 
nature, and all parts brought into co-ordination with each 
other and into co-ordination with the action of man's soul. 

Plasticity of body and elasticity of voice are found in 
nature to be co-essential to all expression. Unless body 
and voice are attuned to their office, they may serve as 
the prison-house to conceal or fetter the real feelings 
and spirit of the man, instead of serving as nature's 
intended means for manifestation. However strong may 
be the cause, or the fundamental spontaneous impulse, 
unless the channels of expression are open the results 
can not follow. 

In the third place, there must be a knowledge of the 
proper technical mode of accomplishing every result, and 
training to secure skill in execution. Man has many lan- 
guages by which to convey his thoughts and feelings : 
these must co-operate, as has been shown, to produce the 



2 1 o Search for Method. 

strongest and most truthful impression upon the minds 
of his hearers. One soul must adapt the truth and all its 
impressions to another, so that the universal laws of art 
must be understood and the best method of accomplish- 
ing results must be consciously or unconsciously evolved. 
The language of weakness must be distinguished from 
the language of strength, for things natural to a weak 
man may not be natural to a strong one. There must 
be a study not only of what actually is, but of what should 
be. Not only a study of what is habitually natural but of 
what is ideally natural, what is nature's normal tendency 
rather than the human perversfon. Every art must have 
a technique. 

Not only must the mental action be first, but out of a 
study of the mental action must come even the proper 
training of voice and all technique. Take the technique 
of vocal expression, for instance the elements of melody : 
these are directly manifestive of the sequence of the mind 
from idea to idea. Mere mechanical work upon this 
technique, independent of a study of the causes of proper 
melody, will not accomplish the end. So that technique 
in vocal expression must always be directly studied in 
connection with the action of the mind. 

Not only must we have these different forms of training, 
we must see also the order of application, or at least the 
order of importance. Nature always proceeds from cause 
to effect, so that the very first attention must be given in 
expression to the action of the mind. The faculties and 
powers individually concerned in taking and giving truth 
must be so trained as to perfectly discharge individual 
functions and be brought into harmonious co-operation 
with each other in the act of expression. 

Next must follow the training of the body and the 
voice, for upon these the first impulse of feeling has 



Development of Expression. 2 1 1 

immediate effect. The agitation of the breathing and the 
body are the very first effects of emotion. So, that it is 
first necessary to have a cause, and second to have control 
of the means. 

The third step in training must be a study of the gen- 
eral principles of art, and a knowledge of the best modes 
of execution ; the development and perfect skill in the 
use of the technical means for the accomplishment of 
the end. 

Returning now to the difficulty with which we started, 
is there here no foundation for a solution of the problem ? 
If expression implies cause, means and effect, and if we 
can, as has been shown, stimulate the cause, and secure 
control of the means, do we not in this way help the 
spontaneous, unconscious and involuntary elements of 
delivery ? Instead of such training making men narrow, 
it will make them broader. Instead of making them 
mechanical, it will remove artificiality and even affecta- 
tion. Instead of making men imitate somebody else, it 
will remove even unconscious imitation. Instead of 
developing self-consciousness it will remove self -conscious- 
ness and make the man free ; because self -consciousness 
is nearly always the result of some obstruction in the use 
of the mechanisnij some misuse of the organism, or some 
endeavor to consciously use what was intended in nature 
to act unconsciously. In such training as this, the 
channels of expression are opened ; all constriction and 
hindrance removed. The fundamental cause is stim- 
ulated, so that there is developed a concentration of con- 
sciousness rather than a confusion of consciousness. 
Consciousness is not made chaotic by being extended 
over a vast number of conflicting agents into realms 
where it was never meant to be found, but is centered on 
the fundamental thought which lies as the cause of the 



212 Search for Method. 

stimulation of emotion and all expression. In this way 
the man is developed along all the lines of nature's inten- 
tion, and what was intended in nature to be spontaneous 
remains spontaneous, even becomes more spontaneous. 
What was intended by nature to be deliberative is made 
deliberative, and is brought under immediate control of 
the will ; the volition of the man is strengthened and 
developed. 

This is a very important point, because man can only 
be trained along the line of nature's intention. We can 
not in any form of education oppose nature. And the 
artificial methods of developing delivery by imitation, 
or by the mechanical or analytic process, so called, act in 
direct violation of nature's intention by making that 
which is intended to be spontaneous, deliberative. 

But we meet here another objector, the mechanical 
elocutionist. Why, says he, is it necessary to do all this ? 
As expression is merely an effect, why not simply study 
how to produce this effect ? There are many who 
think that this is the whole problem of delivery. They 
say the training of the mind belongs somewhere else and 
has nothing to do with the work of expression. They 
agree that the more the mind is trained, the better it may 
be for expression, but say that expression itself has 
nothing to do directly with mental activity, or rather that 
there is no special training of the mind belonging to the 
distinctive work of developing expression. Much of our 
elocutionary work proceeds upon this basis. The study 
is merely a study of effect. Recently there began to be 
a feeling that the voice and body ought to be developed 
for the purposes of expression, but up to the present 
time, as far as I know, there has been no special emphasis 
of the fact that there is a peculiar and special training of 
the mind necessary to develop power in expression, no 



Development of Expression. 213 

matter what its previous training may have been; that 
expression is essentially a mental action, and depends 
primarily upon the proper action of the mind. 

The fundamental reason for all these various kinds of 
training is to reach the spontaneous element in expres- 
sion. Working upon effect alone is like a physician 
working upon the symptoms of disease without going to 
its cause. The most thorough training for expression 
will often be careless at first as to certain external faults, 
as the great physician does not directly attend to the 
headache which is caused by some derangement in the 
vital organs of the man. 

These methods followed faithfully, not merely one side 
of the mind will be trained, but all faculties will be devel- 
oped and co-ordinated ; especially the unconscious or 
spontaneous powers and the unconscious actions upon 
which true delivery most depends, will be properly devel- 
oped by a proper co-ordination with the powers which are 
fundamentally and necessarily conscious. 

If the views here unfolded are true, delivery must be 
improved by improving the action of the faculties spe- 
cially concerned, by securing a greater unity of action in 
the whole nature of the man ; by securing a more perfect 
control of voice and body as the organism of expression ; 
and skill in execution as well as a higher ideal and con- 
ception of the nature and mission of the art, and the 
legitimate and illegitimate, the right and the wrong, the 
strong and the weak, in modes of rendering. 

Let us enter into a more specific study of these dif- 
ferent forms of training, and show that they are all 
mutually necessary for adequate or effective development 
of any form of human expression, and that by a proper 
union of them every demand of the problem can be met. 



XII. 
DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL ACTION. 

It is the mind that makes the body rich. 

— SJiakespeare. 

In the study of nature we have found not only the 
kinds of work needed and the steps to be taken, but 
also the order in which each form of training should 
receive attention. While nature grows in all directions 
simultaneously, yet we have first the seed, next the blade 
and then the full corn. Nature never endeavors to pro- 
duce an effect without cause. The natural course, there- 
fore, demands that attention must first of all be given to 
the cause in expression. But here we meet another 
objector. Delivery, he says, is only a physical thing. 
The whole process is a mechanical one. Elocution is 
only an effect; simply find the right rule for accomplish- 
ing the effects, that is the whole secret. If a man has a 
good mind it is better, of course, but delivery has nothing 
to do with mental action, it is only the technical part. 
Such objections are so commonly held that such a depart- 
ure from ordinary views as is here advanced must be in 
a measure justified. 

The first argument for attention to the mind in the 
training for delivery is the nature of expression. If the 
problem has been correctly unfolded in the preceding 
pages then attention to the action of the mind is abso- 
lutely necessary. Every fact unfolded regarding the 
nature of expression is a most effective argument for the 
need of mental training in the development of delivery. 
For example, expression is a manifestation of the soul, 
the body is only an instrument. The great failures in 



Development of Mental Action. 21$ 

expression are due to the separation of physical actions 
from the mind that uses them. The kinds of expression 
correspond to the elemental powers of the soul. So 
intimate is the relation of the soul to expression, that in 
the most objective and mechanical forms the character of 
the soul reveals itself. The fact that the most eminent 
artists believe in genuine emotion and mental action is a 
direct proof, and the fact that most of these have lost 
faith in mechanical elocution is an indirect proof that 
attention must be given primarily to the action of the 
mind. Expression has been found to consist of a repre- 
sentative element which is intellectual, and a manifestive 
element which is more emotional ; hence, the proper co-or- 
dination of these can only be developed by studying the 
causes of these in the soul. The changes in expression 
from age to age have kept pace with changes in the sub- 
jective spirit, and as expression has improved it has 
always become a more perfect mirror of subjective con- 
ditions, and more intimately connected with mental 
actions. 

As we turn to study the processes of expression in 
nature, we have found that they are always from within 
out, that all parts co-operate about a center, and that 
human expression comes from the whole man, that nat- 
uralness requires expression to come from all the powers 
of the soul acting in their unity. 

All these facts plainly prove that any adequate devel- 
opment of expression demands special attention to. the' 
action of the mind, as the cause of the impulse for 
expression. 

Again, it has been found that many of the actions in 
delivery are unconscious and involuntary. When the 
delivery is mechanical and artificial the more important 
unconscious elements are always absent, but if the mind 



216 Search for Method. 

acts properly, if there is a succession of ideas, if the 
expression is merely thinking aloud and is not a deliber- 
ative conscious -execution of external directions according 
to rules, these involuntary actions are present as nature 
intended. Expression in the one case is deliberative, 
every action is the result of choice, and only the salient 
and external characteristics or signs of emotion are given. 
But where the man loses himself in his subject, where his 
whole soul is absorbed in his thought, each idea rouses 
all the faculties of his nature and all the subtle and 
unconscious elements of expression. Here we have nat- 
uralness. All the languages are co-ordinated according 
to the rich plenitude of nature. Therefore it can be 
seen at once that by securing proper action of the mind 
these subtle elements which make the genuineness of all 
expression are developed. If this is true, study of the 
mental action in the development of delivery can not be 
omitted with impunity. 

One of the most important arguments for attention to 
the mind in delivery, is that all the faults of expression 
can be traced, directly or indirectly, to a psychic source. 
Just as a good physician is known by his skill to trace 
diseases to their fundamental causes, and his ability to 
eradicate those causes, so the development of effective 
and natural delivery is absolutely dependent upon insight 
into the causes of faults, and skill in the application of 
training for their removal. Yet nowhere do we find so 
many temptations to deal with mere temporary expedi- 
ents, or to treat mere external symptoms. Such a method 
also violates all the fundamental laws of education, and 
makes the man artificial and constricted. Temporary 
improvement sometimes may be seen, yet such a course 
will in the end be ineffective, and result in making the 
man more conscious of his faults, and hence, more con- 



Development of Mental Action. 2 1 7 

stricted and nervous. Above all, the action of the mind 
instead of being improved and strengthened, will be 
weakened and unbalanced because the consciousness has 
been misplaced and confused rather than focused as nature 
intended. 

Let us examine, then, a few of the faults which can be 
traced to mental causes. For the first example, note the 
hard qualities of the voice so common in our day. Nine- 
tenths of the time persons whose voices are habitually 
hard and cold, have very little imaginative or pictorial 
action of the mind at the time of speaking. There may 
be thought, but it is a mere outline, or abstract form ; no 
series of images rises in the soul. At any rate, there is 
no response to such images, as all feeling and emotional 
response to such ideas are repressed and kept entirely 
separate from the thought. There is no co-ordination 
between thought and emotion, hence feeling, whose nat- 
ural language is color, has no effect upon the voice. The 
result, therefore, naturally follows. This fault is very 
common among the teachers of our public schools. They 
deal continually with ideas, independent of emotion. 
Many of them teach in large rooms, and have to strain 
their voices to make themselves heard. They are con- 
tinually endeavoring to convey ideas to dull minds and 
hence are tempted to sharpen and harden the voice to 
drive the ideas home. Besides, teachers are apt to for- 
get that " truth is within ourselves, and takes no rise from 
outward things," but must simply be stimulated or 
evoked from within. They are continually tempted to 
deal with mere facts, and thus to separate the emotional 
elements from thought. This naturally, if not necessa- 
rily, tends to make the voice cold and hard. As a further 
proof of this, those teachers who love their work, who 
teach with imagination and feeling ever active, who 



2 1 8 Search for Method. 

patiently and quietly endeavor to stimulate from within 
the children's souls, rather than to drive information into 
their heads from without, are more frequently free from 
this fault. Nature ever tends to tell the truth, and the 
teacher who is mechanical and cold, must expect the 
story to be told in the quality of his tones. If there is 
no color in the mind, how can there be color in the tones 
of the voice ? 

Sometimes this fault is considered to be merely a mat 
ter of pitch. One of the greatest educators in this coun- 
try once said to me, "If you could only get our public 
school teachers to speak upon a lower pitch, it would be 
the greatest blessing to the children of our public 
schools." Though this is occasionally true, most fre- 
quently a lack of color or resonance in the voice, is mis- 
taken for a high pitch. If one who has control over the 
voice makes a resonant, open tone, and then in contrast 
a narrow, constricted, hard tone, upon the same pitch, an 
uneducated ear always thinks that the pitch has been 
changed, and will not be convinced till the illustration is 
repeated with an instrument. Then the error can easily 
be perceived. It is only a thoroughly practiced ear that 
can at once detect the difference without such aid. 

Again, college students frequently have this fault. 
With them it is usually due to the fact that they are con- 
tinually reciting, translating Greek and Latin, or demon- 
strating problems in mathematics. Nearly all their work 
consists in conveying thought and mere facts indepen- 
dent of emotion. Feeling in the ordinary class-room is 
usually considered out of place. Here again, cold, hard 
tones are a natural result. 

Observe the contrast between the voices of the chil- 
dren during recitation, and their voices when at play; 
between the qualities of their tones in answering ques- 



Development of Mental Action. 219 

tions in the school-room, and in conversation with their 
playmates on the street or at home : in the one case the 
voice is often positively painful, in the other it is very 
pleasant. The cause is simply the fact that, in the one 
case the faculties of the mind are spontaneous, in the 
other, deliberative ; in the one case there is imagination 
and feeling, in the other a perfunctory performance and 
mere conveying of thought. In the one case, there is 
co-ordination of thought and emotion, a union of all the 
faculties of the mind, in the other merely the faculties of 
understanding, or worse still, merely the memory is active. 
The voice in both instances is simply the mirror of the 
intellectual processes. In all such cases, there can be no 
adequate remedy, no mechanical expedient which will be 
effective until the cause is removed. Of course, when 
there has been a long neglect of such a fault, a mere 
change in the cause will not, at once, make a change in 
the voice, because a habit long continued produces a per- 
manent physical condition which must be eradicated by 
another kind of training ; but this latter can not ade- 
quately accomplish the work, without a change in the 
fundamental conditions, also. 

Of course pupils and students frequently acquire such 
a hard quality of voice from imitation of teachers, but 
even in this case, habit of mind on the part of the per- 
son imitated, is more or less assimilated, so that there are 
few or no exceptions to the general rule. 

Again, note the continual minor inflections, the quivers 
and various sad modulations of the voice so common 
among clergymen. These faults are rarely, if ever, due 
to physical conditions. The causes of such faults are 
very complex, and are due often to physical weakness, 
sometimes to unconscious imitation of the denominational 
tune, for it is a well-known fact that every denomination 



220 Search for Method. 

has a distinct melody. Still, that their cause is chiefly a 
psychic one, is proved by the fact that clergymen who 
have the most cheerful views of life, who are genial in 
their intercourse with men, are less liable to such faults ; 
while those who have sad and gloomy views of life are 
far more addicted to them. Those who usually have such 
faults tend to drift in emotion ; tend to feel their whole 
sermon, and the whole situation, rather than each distinct 
idea in the situation; are apt to speak "into the air," and 
not definitely nor directly to an audience. 

In cases where these faults are due to misconception of 
the office filled, the position occupied, or the solemn 
themes discussed by clergymen, or in cases where they 
arise simply on account of a desire to be earnest ; even 
the faults which result from these remote causes can not 
be eradicated without direct work upon the action of the 
mind, for in nearly all cases the immediate cause of such 
qualities of voice, is the emotional condition of the man 
at the time he speaks, or at least, such an emotional 
condition was there when the fault was first acquired. 
Such faults are extremely difficult to eradicate, on account 
of the fact that the voice no longer definitely responds to 
each idea and its co-ordinate experience in the mind. At 
first it did to some extent, but on account of a continual 
drifting tendency frequently the form is left without the 
substance. But in all cases, to correct such faults, what- 
ever may be their cause, the man must be made to feel 
the connection between his thought and feeling, and his 
tone; he must be made to detect the false ring, and 
distinguish it from the true* response of voice to genuine 
emotion, and in all cases there is needed a study of the 
successive actions of the mind, the idea, the emotional 
response, and then the response in the voice and body. 
A clergyman who has acquired such a mannerism as to 



Development of Mental Action. 221 

give out his notices with a sad and mournful tone, as 
serious as he uses in prayer, or at a funeral, must not be 
considered hypocritical, because often he is completely 
unconscious of the fault ; besides, the quality of his tone is 
a natural consequence of an endeavor on his part to hold 
a long sermon in his mind at once, and to feel it as a 
whole. The feelings of the man are prepared beforehand. 
Such a wholesale dealing with emotion easily destroys 
the delicate response of his emotional nature to the dis- 
tinct and definite ideas he has in his mind at the time ; 
and of course his voice will manifest his predominant 
emotional condition. The whole problem of correcting 
such defects must center in securing a co-ordination and 
concentration of the whole nature upon the distinct and 
definite idea in the mind at the time of delivery. Again, 
note some of the unnatural melodies so common among 
all public speakers. In nearly all cases they are due to 
defects in the relation of the mental action to the emo- 
tional action. When we come to study the difference in 
the expression of thought and emotion, we find that the 
direct expression of thought is through form, while the 
direct expression of feeling is more through rhythm and 
tone color. Just, therefore, as thought is co-ordinated 
with feeling, so melody, rhythm and tone color are co-or- 
dinated in expression. If thought and feeling are not 
properly related there will be some external defect in the 
co-ordination of form and color. Public speakers are 
frequently emotional without thought, or at least their 
emotion and thought are not balanced by will. In such 
cases the emotion dominates the man and expression is 
merely the result of the emotional drift. Here we have 
the key to sing-song forms of melody. Thought without 
emotion hardens the voice, as we have found, but emotion 
without thought causes a meaningless drift. 



222 Search for Method. 

But there is also another result of this emotional drift, 
which has a very deleterious effect upon the voice. 
Whenever there is a lack of control over the emotion, 
that is, when thought and emotion are not co-ordinated 
by will, the emotion flows to the throat and causes mus- 
cular constriction there. Where the emotion is properly 
controlled in expression there is a co-ordinate control of 
breath. The throat is passive in such cases and the dia- 
phragm is active. Thus even sore throat in ministers 
has a mental cause. Those preachers who are very emo- 
tional, especially those who drift in emotion, who have no 
control over it, are the very ones who suffer most from 
minister's sore throat. By proper control over the emo- 
tion a co-ordination between the breathing and the throat 
is established according to nature's intention. Nature is 
ever consistent ; there is ever a tendency to right action. 
If the seed is properly planted, and the soil, heat and 
proper conditions are placed around it, growth and devel- 
opment are normal. Give nature cause and adequate 
means and she will accomplish the effect. So among 
public speakers, secure a proper action of the mind and a 
proper co-operation of all the faculties of the soul and 
co-ordination of thought and emotion by will, with the 
proper channels open, then the delivery will tend to be 
natural and right. 

Again, if we study speakers, we find that a very com- 
mon fault is monotony. There is a constant tendency 
to speak upon one pitch, or in a very limited range. The 
cause of this is not only a lack of control over the voice, 
but is really a mental one ; that is, the mind does not 
receive a specific impression from each successive idea ; 
there is no change in the action of the mind, and it is not 
wonderful that there is no variety in the tones and inflec- 
tions of the voice. In nature there are no two things 



Development of Mental Action. 223 

alike. Every idea which is created by the imagination 
will produce an effect entirely different from that of any 
other idea. The impression produced by each idea has 
a character of its own, so that the cure of monotony 
must ever be chiefly effected through the mind. 

Again, note the fact that a great many public speakers 
do not breathe frequently enough. The reason for this is 
not merely that they do not think about breathing, for no 
one should think of breathing at the time of speaking, 
and in order to correct such a defect, merely to tell a 
man to breath oftener by a deliberative act of the will, is 
to make the man mechanical, where nature intended him 
to be spontaneous. He will be conscious where he 
should be unconscious. The real cause of the fault is the 
fact that the man does not receive a vivid impression 
from each successive idea. He unfolds his ideas by 
wholesale, or in an uninterrupted stream ; his ideas are 
dim and vague on account of the fact that too great a 
number of ideas are in the mind at the same time. There 
is no concentration of the mind upon each fundamental 
idea, such as will be sufficient to cause the man to 
breathe. Breathing in expression is not only a physical 
act, but is caused by the nature of the passion, and the 
vividness of the impression in the mind. The number of 
times a man breathes when he is natural is dependent 
upon the successive action of the mind, while the amount 
of breath is regulated by the passion and control over it. 
In other words, as the mind takes an idea for the purpose 
of expression he breathes spontaneously in preparation 
for the vocalization. This is a spontaneous co-ordination 
in nature and can be proved by any one who will take the 
pains to observe men in surprise or in excitement or in 
calmness when going to speak or call to a distance. 
Some of the most distinguished speakers weary them- 



224 Search for Method. 

selves very much in speaking, on account of ignorance 
regarding the cause of their breathing too seldom. By 
observing such faults, by studying their psychic as well 
as their physical cause, and by working upon both, effect- 
ive results can be accomplished. Without such a method, 
when the physical alone is regarded, all wiU be made 
mechanical and the fault will be continually returning. 

Not only must such faults of expression be met by 
securing proper action of the mind, but unless such a 
method is adopted as a part of the work there is always 
in correcting one fault danger of introducing another, 
often worse than the first ; for example, take the almost 
universal tendency to have too little breath in speaking. 
Whenever this fault is corrected mechanically there is a 
tendency to introduce too great muscular work. Some- 
times the muscles used in labored breathing are made to 
act, sometimes there is too much breath and all is con- 
stricted. In nearly every case the natural rhythm is 
interfered with, the spontaneous recovery or tendency to 
return at every moment to life breathing is destroyed. 
By stimulating the proper rhythmic action of thought and 
emotion, by co-ordinating control of emotion and control 
of breath, all such dangers are avoided. 

No fault can be corrected without stimulating the 
inherent tendencies of nature, and this can not be done 
without studying and developing the proper actions of 
the soul. 

Note again, the efforts of speakers to force themselves 
to be earnest. The result is a mere mechanical, muscular 
energy, absolutely foreign to true earnestness. A long 
train of faults follows such endeavors. An irritated 
throat, a husky quality of the voice, pushing the voice 
instead of inflecting it in making emphasis. All endeav- 
ors to force emotion, or endeavors to show more emotion 



Development of Mental Action. 225 

than a man really has, end in abnormal quivers and 
tremors, which in common speech we would call whining. 

These are some of the worst faults of delivery. They 
are those which lie deepest and are hardest to correct. 
While such defects are all associated with physical imper- 
fections, such as lack of control over the voice, physical 
weakness or muscular constriction, yet the fundamental 
cause is psychic. Even after the lack of control over the 
voice has been removed by training and the wrong action 
of the whole body and all imperfect means of expression- 
are corrected, though the man may have a perfect under- 
standing of his fault, yet without correcting the wrong 
action of the mind and the removal of the cause, either 
the fault will return or the man will be merely a self-con- 
scious, mechanical puppet. 

Thus we can see at once that for thorough eradication 
of faults in delivery there must ever be specific and ade- 
quate attention to the action of the mind as the first and 
most important work for the development of delivery. 

Common faults may be temporarily relieved by merely 
working upon the technique, but much of the criticism 
upon elocution is due to the fact that the work is not 
radical. The man is made affected or to speak by rule, 
and is not spontaneously right. The aim of all education 
for delivery must be to develop the spontaneous and 
unconscious actions of the man as well as the conscious, 
so that these shall tend to be right without any mechan- 
ical or deliberative interference. Still it must be remem- 
bered that the point here is not to prove that all faults 
have a direct mental cause, or that the correction of this 
mental cause is all that is needed, but that the action of 
the mind is one of the leading causes, and that the mind 
is the most important factor of expression ; that wrong 
mental action is always associated with bad delivery, and 



226 Search for Method. 

must necessarily have special attention, or there will be 
no radical correction of faults or true development. 

Still another argument for the necessity of mental 
training, is found in the use of the term instinct, in 
relation to all histrionic expression. People speak of 
dramatic instinct, oratoric instinct and artistic instinct. 
Whatever definition may be given to instinct, that it is 
simply a spontaneous action of all the faculties in their 
unity, or consciousness recognizing the result but not 
the process, or as " unconscious action toward an uncon- 
scious purpose," in any case we have a recognition of 
the truth of the principle here unfolded. 

The use of such a term implies the fact that all true 
expression is traced to the action of the mind and that 
there is ever an unconscious element in all true delivery. 

The highest and the most necessary quality of all art is 
unity, and this is more true of expression because it is the 
product of a living being through its own living organism. 
So that, it must have the unity of life itself. The only 
way this unity can be developed is by securing proper 
action of the mind. It is only in this way that all the 
psychological and the physiological actions, the voluntary 
and the involuntary elements, can be brought into unity. 
It is only thus that all the complex subtleties of expres- 
sion can be brought into play. 

Study, for example, the relation of being to body. 
Herman Lotze has shown that the control of the body 
by will is over-estimated. No man can understand the 
processes of the simplest movement. We initiate the 
impulse from the depth of the soul and the work is done. 
Many of the actions of the body are performed by a series 
of reflex actions over which man's will has no direct 
control. This is especially true of expression. The 
great thing that needs to be done is to study how the 



Development of Mental Action. 227 

initiatory impulse can be awakened. If the mind can be 
stimulated to act right, the voice, other things being 
equal, will act right. Not that the will directly controls 
all the actions of the breathing according to the common 
theory in training, but that the unconscious and involun- 
tary reflex actions are properly initiated. Much of all the 
work in breathing, many of the nerves and muscles and 
many of the actions of the throat in tone never were 
intended to be directly conscious and voluntary ; and to 
endeavor to make them so is simply to pervert nature. 
All the training for expression must ever regard this dis- 
tinction. The function of the will is primarily for the 
initiation of the fundamental impulse in the depths of the 
soul. There are many of the very highest and most 
important modes of expression belonging to the voice and 
the different parts of the body, which will begin at once 
to follow from a proper development of the mind and a 
proper restoration of voice and body to normal conditions 
and actions, but which no volitionary action independent 
of emotional conditions, independent of simple, normal, 
psychic action, can ever execute. 

We have found how complex and infinitely varied are 
the languages which are co-ordinated in all expression. 
Upon the theory that man by direct choice can do all 
this, we are required to believe that the mind can delib- 
erately choose a hundred things held before the mind at 
the same time. But if a man has to consciously choose 
every emotion, every action, every inflection- and every 
modulation and color of the voice, all will be dim and 
superficial. True unity in nature is ever dependent upon 
a center and that center in expression is the mind — 
the idea. Hence, it is impossible for man to act in 
accordance with theories of mechanical skill, according to 
which he must simply know what to do and do it. That 



228 Search for Method. 

he must have his emotions and the expression of every 
part of his body in his mind in the same way as he has 
the words of a vocabulary, and that he is to call forth 
emotions and inflections at will in all parts of his body, 
and that such conscious control makes him an artist. 
There never has been such an artist. Whenever there 
has been one who has acted merely upon this theory he 
has become mechanical, one-sided, artificial and has failed. 
As we study such a speaker, different parts of his body 
may seem to perform perfect actions, but they lack that 
mystic unity which ever must result from the element of 
spontaneous growth. As some one has said, " Shakes- 
peare's plays grow, while Goethe's seem to be made." 
So all great expression must have an element of growth, 
or there is no unity. It is in the unconscious nature 
of the man, co-ordinated with the conscious, that is found 
the root from which all activity in every part of the 
body seems to flow. By securing a proper action of 
the mind, simple organic unity in nature results from a 
spontaneous diffusion of the effects of emotion through 
the nerves and organs. 

We must not, however, make the mistake that all is 
merely impulsive, that there is no conscious and no delib- 
erative work. When we study the trains of ideas in mere 
musing, we find a confused mass, more or less without 
order, without method ; while in a train of ideas worthy 
the name of thinking the mind selects and is focused 
successively .upon each central idea and makes this into a 
vivid image, and by the power of attention deliberatively 
and consciously holds it before the mind until an effect is 
produced upon the unconscious nature. Here we have a 
deliberative element in direct co-ordination with the 
unconscious element. Man can control his emotions, 
man can create emotions that will be so powerful as . to 



Development of Mental Action. 229 

stir the very depths of his being, but it must be by fol- 
lowing such a process. 

Thus, unity of expression is dependent upon a unity of 
impulse, and unity of impulse is dependent upon unity of 
stimulation. With the voice and body in proper condi- 
tion of training, with an active imagination, a powerful 
impulse can be awakened in the depths of the soul that 
can bring all the actions of the man into definite 
co-ordination. 

We come now to more specific questions. What 
actions of the mind need to be trained, and how can they 
be developed ? To answer fully these questions would 
require a volume. Those who desire to see the steps 
more fully presented are referred to the work on Vocal 
Expression and the Text Books upon Expression, soon to 
be published ; all that will be attempted here will be a few 
simple illustrations, showing the necessity for some atten- 
tion and the possible results that may follow from devel- 
opment of this phase of delivery. 

First, let it be noted that something more is needed 
than indirect work. This, however, is very important. 
Many faults can be corrected by simply improving the 
general taste of the man. A study of art may awaken a 
right conception of delivery without any direct work upon 
the mind in delivery itself. The most fundamental needs 
in delivery may at times be met by interesting a student 
in poetry, in the study of authors that especially stimulate 
neglected faculties. But there must be more specific 
work than this. 

All expression is simply the manifestation of posses- 
sion — it is simply thinking aloud. The laws of thinking 
must be studied and specially developed. As musing is 
the drifting from idea to idea while thinking is a focus- 
ing of the mind successively upon ideas in a natural or 



230 Scare It for Method. 

determined sequence, so one of the first actions of the 
mind to be trained in expression is attention. If we take 
an extract from the best literature, containing vivid ideas 
or pictures, arranged in a simple and natural order, and 
read it over silently, that is, rethink it, we find the mind 
pausing upon one idea and then leaping to another, as has 
been fully explained and illustrated by Coleridge in his 
essay upon method. We find, also, that the steps may be 
made definitely and certainly, or so vaguely and indefin- 
itely, that the mind may end in chaos. The definite 
sequence, the accentuation of the steps, and the power to 
hold the mind upon each idea until it stirs the whole man 
is the fundamental requisite of all vocal expression. This 
action of the mind must be accentuated for expression. 
Thinking, to awaken thinking in others, requires an exag- 
geration of the processes of thinking, for the idea must 
affect voice and body. It must stimulate an emotional 
impulse toward expression. Thus the first action of the 
mind which must be developed is the power to hold all the 
powers of the mind concentrated upon one object or idea. 

Another action of the mind that needs training is the 
power to create or reproduce vividly these ideas. The 
successive ideas upon which the mind is focused, are 
pictures. They are the work of the imagination. They 
may be apprehended very dimly and vaguely or even 
abstractly. This pictorial power is very susceptible to 
training. The right kind of work develops philosophical 
rather than verbal memory. Not only is there need for 
the development of the power to see each idea, but there 
is an imaginative grasp of a situation ; an idea does not 
stimulate emotion, it is an idea in its connections or rela- 
tions that moves men. 

Another action to be developed by training is the emo- 
tional response of the soul to these pictures in the mind. 



Development of Mental Action. 231 

This attention is conscious and deliberative, but the 
response to the idea contains a spontaneous element. 
As we call up and hold before the mind a picture, the soul 
is moved. We do not naturally remain neutral. Emo- 
tion of some kind must spring up in the heart. 

We must watch this response ; but we must not inter- 
fere with it. We can take a most beautiful extract and 
endeavor simply and truthfully to reveal the emotional 
conditions. The unconscious and the involuntary will 
thus be awakened and can be studied and co-ordinated. 
It is very important for the student to be able to distin- 
guish, what he does himself by will and what seems to be 
done for him, or independent of his will. Let the student 
take some simple line full of great joy, for example, 
abandon himself wholly to the emotion and practice faith- 
fully. He will become conscious of the idea and the 
response to this idea. 

Again, contrast a cold, intellectual line with a line full 
of admiration. The student will come to know very soon 
what abandon means, what impulses do for him, the stim- 
ulation of breathing, the softening of the voice by emo- 
tion, and many other effects. Such a study of self in the 
act of giving what we feel is very important. 

The first of all requisites is that the man shall be able 
to distinguish when every faculty and power of the soul 
is acting in its own province. 

The best method for the development of this power 
to vividly portray ideas and to feel the response to them, 
is the study of lyrics. 

A lyric is a most fundamental form of art, it contains 
vivid pictures and noble emotions. By practice upon 
this simplest form of art, the elemental impulses of the 
man can be quickened, strengthened and co-ordinated. I 
once asked Professor Norton, the foremost art critic of 



232 Search for Method. 

this country, how appreciation of art could be developed 
in men ; he said it must be done by cultivating the imag- 
ination. " If I had work like yours to do I would take 
a collection of Lyrics and have students learn them and 
recite them over and over." From long years of actual 
experience before and since that time I can bear my testi- 
mony to the wonderful results that can be accomplished. 

We see here another reason why the writings of the 
best authors must be chosen. They give ideas the most 
truthful, the most imaginative and ideal. The greater the 
author, the simpler the arrangement and the more natu- 
rally one idea is made to grow out of another. 

Still another action of the mind needs to be developed. 
This is the logical sequence of ideas. This methodic 
instinct can be developed by studying the great essayists 
and orators ; but better than all, by speaking. Extempo- 
raneous speaking is the most effective method of develop- 
ing proper mental action, especially insight and method. 
Let the teacher ask a student to prepare and give a simple 
account of a visit to some place or object of interest, or 
give a simple account of some great event preparing the 
thought, arranging the ideas ; but > leaving the words for 
the moment of delivery. 

In my own work I have also found it a great help to 
assign to each member of a class some great historical 
speaker and have him thoroughly investigate his life and 
works so as to be able to present the essential elements 
of his power. The student becomes inspired by the 
speaker he is studying. He not only finds something to 
say, but is inspired to say it. He is studying oratory 
from the life of an orator; he is also studying himself, 
and is engaged in the most direct and effective practice of 
his art. Are not all these facts sufficient to prove that 
the mind must and can be developed in delivery ? Man 



Development of Mental Action. 233 

has no faculty or power in his nature that is not capable 
of education. The higher the faculty, the more suscepti- 
ble it is to training. It is only the beating of the heart 
and certain physiological functions that are not capable of 
education. So, also, the higher the animal the more capa- 
ble it is of development. The possibility of education is 
the highest test of intelligence. 

Many are led to think that because the greater portion 
of all expression is unconscious, it is therefore incapable 
of education. If the color of the voice is unconscious 
then they say, any interference with it by the action of 
the will is dangerous. If much of pantomimic expression 
is involuntary, any endeavor to regulate it will produce 
affectation. That there is great danger has already been 
acknowledged and shown, and the specific danger will be 
more fully shown hereafter. But if such were consistent, 
they would say that man's character is an unconscious 
result and any endeavor to improve it would be the same 
as trying to act a character before our fellow-men, and 
that the education of character would be hypocrisy. 

The fact that character is reached indirectly, developed 
unconsciously and involuntarily, and yet is the highest 
goal of all education, shows us that the legitimate aim of 
education, its most difficult problem, is to affect that which 
is unconscious. True education is all-sided and consists 
ever in stimulating the faculties to spontaneous activity. 
Whenever we begin to recognize the fact that education 
is the process of bringing before the mind such objects 
as will stimulate spontaneous activity, as will awaken the 
normal processes of growth, it can be seen at once that 
action of the mind as cause in expression is one of the 
highest aims of education. The old misconception of edu- 
cation, that its aim is merely to acquire knowledge, has 
led naturally to the neglect of all work for true expression. 



234 Search for Method. 

Many elocutionists honestly think that if delivery is 
dependent upon the action of the mind " Othello's occu- 
pation is gone." Macready is said to have given up the 
teaching of elocution because "no one could teach feel- 
ing." Was he right in this statement? If feeling is not 
an object of education, then taste is not an object of 
education ; love of music can not be developed ; a love of 
beauty, a love of poetry, can not be educated. If Mac- 
ready did make the remark, he must have had a poor 
method as a teacher of elocution. If the development of 
delivery has reference only to the mechanical signs of 
emotion, if it is only to develop skill in the use of these 
signs, then the statement is right. But every faculty and\ 
every power in the human soul, directly or indirectly, is 
susceptible of education. 

The imagination, fully as much as any faculty of the 
mind, can be developed, and with the growth of the 
imagination, there is growth of feeling. A love of poetry, 
a love of art, the artistic sense of delivery, must ever be 
developed through the development of the imagination. 
By bringing men into contact with literature and art, by 
stimulating, directly and indirectly, the ideals and pur- 
poses, by developing the power of the human mind to 
conceive situations, to realize the relations and surround- 
ings of different minds in the history of the race, the 
power of feeling can be wonderfully awakened. I appeal 
to the experience of every teacher who has labored for 
years with every class of. mind, and who has not tried to 
do the work in a few days, but who has patiently pro- 
ceeded, and who has had the co-operation of students — I 
appeal to such if this is not the case. It sometimes is 
accomplished indirectly by asking the student what he 
generally reads, what he habitually studies, and prescrib- 
ing a course of reading which will remove the mechanical 



Development of Mental Action. 235 

and constricted actions of his mind, which will stimulate 
his imagination and his emotion from new points of view. 
Hundreds of men, by merely working upon words or lit- 
eral facts, lose all appreciation of poetry. Few are will- 
ing to acknowledge it, as did Darwin, who said he felt 
that certain powers of his nature were in an atrophied 
condition from the one-sided character of his studies. 

But the work can also be accomplished directly. It is 
a problem for direct study and development, for every 
faculty and power given to man is capable of education, if 
only its true nature and normal actions are studied. Of 
course it is not contended that there are no differences of 
ability in this as in every phase of human life. The pos- 
sibility of education is not the same, but that possibility 
exists, and some who are capable of becoming the great- 
est artists need it most. The spontaneous impulses of 
human nature can be stimulated. The responsiveness of 
the voice and body to these impulses can be developed, 
and the whole expression of the man can become more 
natural and effective. Certainly if there is no such thing 
as the development of the imagination and feelings and a 
co-ordination of thought and emotion to bring these into 
a better balance by will, if the spontaneous impulses of 
the soul in their actions can not be developed, then it will 
be taken for granted that expression can not be developed 
at all ; that it is simply a natural result. In fact it is not 
even natural, for everything natural has power to grow. 
It is only a mechanical thing, the result of trickery which 
can be learned by rule, but is not a legitimate part of edu- 
cation. But in such a view and by such a method, 
consciousness will be unfocused and nature will be super- 
ficialized. There will be a development of greater one- 
sidedness than before. No external polish can conceal a 
lack of balance of the elemental powers of the soul. 



236 Search for Method. 

Thus the work of developing expression must funda- 
mentally depend upon what we may call psychological 
diagnosis. As the eradication of disease depends upon a 
skillful insight into the needs and causes, upon careful 
pathological diagnoses, so must all training for develop- 
ment of delivery be primarily dependent upon a careful 
consideration of the causes of the faults and of the 
fundamental needs in delivery. Among these the primary 
cause must ever be the action -of the mind. Such as the 
action of the reproductive faculties, the logical insight, 
the method, the progressive action from idea to idea, 
from thought to thought, the emotional response of each 
idea and the emotional transition as the mind passes from 
idea to idea, and the harmonious co-ordination of all 
the faculties of the intellect and of the emotional powers 
or sensibilities and of the will in the act of speaking. 



XIII. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANISM. 

Nature is made better by no mean, 
But nature makes that mean. — Shakespeare. 

The first and chief attention, therefore, in expression, 
must be given to the action of the mind, but correct 
action of the mind alone will not secure adequate expres- 
sion. Many, whose minds are thoroughly trained, who 
are capable of the greatest thought and most intense feel- 
ing, are yet extremely imperfect in expression. While 
the impulse from the soul may be essentially right yet 
the body may still not respond to this impulse. The fac- 
ulties of the soul and its physical agents may not work in 
unison. Notwithstanding intensity of feeling, notwith- 
standing earnestness and clearness of thought, in many 
we find an absolute separation between the soul and the 
voice, the mind and the body. 

Expression depends upon many things ; it is first 
dependent upon the clearness and vividness of the ideas ; 
secondly, upon the responsiveness of the emotional nature, 
of the unconscious powers to these ideas; and, in the 
third place, to responsiveness on the part of the voice and 
body to the spontaneous impulses of the soul. Failure at 
any of these points will destroy adequate expression. 
Like an electric current there must be an unbroken line 
along which the impulse is transmitted ; imperfection at 
only one point will destroy the manifestation. So that, 
expression not only requires a vivid imagination and 
responsive emotion, but a responsive body, and a respons- 
ive voice. Imperfect expression results from lack of 
plasticity of body, and inflexibility of the voice, as well as 



238 Search for Method. 

from lack of activity or responsiveness in being. The 
co-ordination of thought and emotion is no more import- 
ant than the co-ordination of being and body. An effect 
in nature is dependent upon appropriate means, as well 
as upon adequate cause ; not only must there be impulse 
toward expression, but the channels must be open. 

Hence we find another form of training necessary. 
The organic instruments must be prepared for their work. 
Everything except a few physiological actions needs spe- 
cial training. The more related any function is to art, 
the more necessary such training becomes. The little 
child has to learn to use its hands to feed itself ; but it 
requires still more work for the hand to become pliable 
for the manifestation of the mind. The voice is used in 
crying as the spontaneous expression of pain, but long 
and patient effort is required to make the same mechan- 
ism perfect as an instrument of speech. The little par- 
tridge requires no education to be able to run, but the 
child must make many despairing efforts before it can 
walk. Education or training is the law of its being, not 
only of the mind but of the body. Man from the earliest 
years of his life has the power to conceive an ideal, and 
,by work to actualize it, and there is no place where this 
applies more than in the use of his own body. 

In order to have perfect musical expression, there must 
be a musician with music in his soul, and an instrument 
in tune. The same is true of delivery. While clear 
ideas, vivid and intense emotions are necessary to expres- 
sion, the instrument employed for their manifestation, 
must be perfectly attuned to its work. A good musician 
will not play upon a piano or violin out of tune, and the 
speaker who rightly apprehends his office, will not fail to 
prepare himself in everyway, to perfectly discharge the 
work before him ; and he who neglects to bring the body 



Development of the Organism. 239 

and the voice into harmony with his soul, can no more 
adequately manifest truth and experience, than a musician 
can bring perfect music from a piano all out of tune. 

But, we must bear in mind, as has been shown, that 
the body is more than an instrument ; it is a living organ- 
ism. A mechanical instrument can be tuned by a 
mechanical process, but a living organism can only be 
tuned by a careful stimulation of nature's processes 
according to her own laws of growth and development. 
We can see, also, that in nature, the being and the body 
are ever united. As man is constituted, a perfect organ- 
ism is necessary to the mind, as its means of expression. 

A proper training of the body, in fact, will aid the 
training of being, as both are under the laws of develop- 
ment. It has been conclusively shown, that animals of 
the highest order of mind, have very highly developed 
tactual organs ; man the highest of all has a most flexible 
hand. Thus body and being are so intimately related 
that a correct action of the mind tends to bring the body 
right, and a correct use of the body, tends to render 
assistance to the psychic action. When the soul is in the 
prison-house of a constricted and rigid body its feelings 
cannot be revealed, the emotion which endeavors to trans- 
mit itself through tones that are hard and that absolutely 
belie its nature, will tend to die for lack of room to 
expand- and channels for manifestation. One of the most 
important steps in the improvement of expression, must 
ever be to bring the voice and the body into such a 
plastic condition, that they will always be in perfect 
harmony and correspondence with being and in subordin- 
ation to the soul. 

Let us look frankly and seriously at the new phase of 
the problem before us. Is special training for the voice 
and body in expression necessary ? 



240 Search for Method. 

There are many reasons aside from those already given, 
why special training for the organism in expression is 
necessary. One argument is, that the actions of the body 
and the voice in public speaking and reading are not the 
ordinary actions of every-day life. The most common 
actions have had to be learned, and hence, we must natu- 
ally infer that any new use of the instruments will require 
new preparation. Every man learns to use the voice 
in simple conversation about the fireside of home, but 
when he rises to speak to a large audience so that all can 
hear, and in a connected discourse, he uses the voice in 
an unusual way. There is more effort. But frequently 
this extra effort is applied at the wrong point, and he is 
soon worn out and his voice so constricted as to make it 
very unpleasant and entirely unfitted to manifest feeling. 
Training can prepare the voice by establishing the normal 
actions and extending them according to nature's own 
modes until increased effort does not displace them, and 
power to manifest feeling increases rather than dimin- 
ishes with excitement and energy. In every part of the 
body there are certain fundamental actions which need to 
be firmly established, so that no excitement nor increase 
of energy will pervert, but rather accentuate them. 

Let us further illustrate this principle. When we 
study men, we find that in some, emotion chokes and 
smothers the voice, while in others emotion expands, 
colors and ennobles it. We find further that the man 
whose voice is made worse by emotion, unconsciously 
transmits the activity caused by emotion to his throat in 
the act of speaking, while the other feels this activity in 
the center of his body, in the region of his diaphragm and 
respiratory muscles. The emotion in the first case, con- 
stricts the throat and voice ; in the other, it stimulates 
the breathing, and develops the proper conditions for 



Development of the Organism. 241 

voice. But the first man is entirely unconscious of his 
fault, and whoever thinks that such a one needs only to 
be told the mistake, has never had any experience in 
teaching voice. In all such cases the more earnestly the 
man tries to speak, the more constricted will be his 
throat, until congestion follows, and we have what is 
called "minister's sore throat," and the clergyman, the 
lecturer or the actor must take a long vacation. Many 
by such a course entirely ruin their voice and even health. 

We have already found that there is wrong action of 
the mind in connection with this fault, that there is a 
lack of control over the emotion to a certain extent, or, 
at any rate, a one-sided action in the man's nature, and 
the correction of this is often necessary for the correction 
of the fault. But this, alone, will not do the work ; there 
has been a slow perversion of the nervous system, a 
wrong use of parts and of muscles, an acquirement of 
such fixed habits, that definite physical work is absolutely 
necessary to correct this abnormal action. The breathing 
must be re-established according to nature's intention ; 
the nerves, which have become sluggish and incapacitated 
for the transmission of emotion, must be stimulated, and 
those muscles upon whose action the normal control of 
the voice is absolutely dependent must be developed and 
brought under control. The aim of all such training is 
to restore nature, to make the man act according to 
nature's intention regarding his own body and his own 
being. When this normal action is once perverted by 
bad habit, it is one of the most difficult things in the 
world to restore it. 

One reason for this difficulty is, that habit so perverts 
a human being that consciousness makes no distinction 
between what is normal and what is abnormal. Faults of 
expression are only vaguely realized in the consciousness 



242 Search for Method. 

of the man. The great struggle of the teacher is to 
make the man see his fault ; but he can not recognize or 
realize his fault fully, for three-fourths of the actions in 
normal or abnormal expression are unconscious. There 
is ever a kind of co-ordination, as has been shown, 
between the conscious and the unconscious elements, and 
it is just here that the evil effects of habit are seen. If 
habit only affected the conscious and voluntary actions 
and emotions of the man, its effects could be easily and 
quickly corrected, but, in fact, habit can only be cor- 
rected by such systematic training, by such careful pre- 
scribed exercises as will develop the natural co-ordination 
of conscious and unconscious conditions, until all the 
nerves and muscles, conscious and unconscious, arc- 
developed to act in accordance with nature's normal 
intention. 

Hence, however plausible and however eloquent may 
seem the arguments of those who say that "all a man 
needs, to speak well, is to speak well," that all he needs 
is simply will ; if he has a fault of voice, he must simply 
bring his will to bear upon it when he rises to speak to 
men, such a course can never meet the needs of men. 
In all such discussions the fundamental problem of the 
development of delivery is misconceived. For, while there 
is a great element of truth in this, and while all we have 
found about the importance of being may seem to prove 
this statement, we can see at once that it is a most one- 
sided view of the subject. 

Habit is overlooked in such advice. If a man were 
perfectly normal, if the bridge from thought to emotion 
and from both to the body were in perfect condition and 
were never broken down or obstructed, such a view might 
be correct. But most men are abnormal, all in some 
particular are one-sided. The emotion that is stimulated 



Development of the Organism. 243 

by thought does not pass along nature's intended roads 
to the voice. Instead, therefore, of the emotion transfig- 
uring the voice, it cramps and obstructs it. Where there 
is not adequate control of the voice according to nature's 
normal method, the more the will itself is exerted, the 
more is the voice cramped and constricted. If a man 
grasps a sword by the handle, the firmer he grasps, the 
better is the execution ; but if his hand grasps the keen 
edge, the more firmly he grasps it the deeper is the gash 
in his own hand. When the whole body and voice are so 
trained that emotion diffuses itself equally to every part, 
when all parts are normally adjusted to each other and 
act according to its fundamental function without inter- 
fering with any other, then, and then only, can it be 
said to a student, "all you need is to force yourself to 
dominate your audience." When once a locomotive is 
off the track, the more steam is put on, the greater the 
destruction. Steam can only be safely applied when the 
locomotive is upon the track along which it was intended, 
by its construction, to travel. Man's will can do a great 
deal with his body, but it can not do everything. When 
a man is abnormal, when he has a bad habit in the use of 
his breathing, voice or body, while " earnestness covers a 
multitude of elocutionary sins," yet, without training to 
place the actions of the man upon the right track, the 
earnestness may only pervert and destroy. 

Again, let us illustrate this principle by a study of awk- 
wardness. Awkwardness is a misuse of the mechanism. 
There is too much effort at times, there is misplaced 
effort always. Effort is either directed to the wrong 
parts, or one part cannot be used without disturbing its 
neighbor. But to tell a man simply to put more will into 
his body, to be more earnest, is only to make him more 
awkward. If the wheels of a machine are ungeared, 



244 Search for Method. 

tremendous force applied will not gear them together. 
If a man makes awkward movements, certainly it is not 
lack of force that makes them so ; it is misapplication of 
force, if not application of too much force. It is not fair 
to say that grace is economy of force, it is as much pre- 
cision as economy of force, but certainly misdirected will 
can not make an awkward man graceful. Grace is more 
particularly dependent upon the principle of centered 
activity; and no mere amount of force establishes a 
center. Again, when a man by imitation and aggre- 
gation or by merely endeavoring to conform to rule, 
attempts to make himself graceful, in all that he does he 
will become more constricted and limited and stiff and 
affected ; and in this case, the amount of energy applied 
makes the affectation only more manifest. 

Again, suppose some one has acquired the bad habit of 
using minor inflections or has a lack of support in his 
tone from mere physical weakness, the result of ill-health, 
or from any cause whatever, suppose he has acquired a 
manneristic sadness which is present in all his speaking ; 
even in such a case, where we would think that this rem- 
edy would directly apply, I have seen men made to drift 
more by mere endeavors to be more earnest. The mind 
must be restored, must be led to conceive anew the situa- 
tion, and in all cases the defect must be eradicated by 
securing control over the breath, establishing support of 
tone and normal inflectional action. Training must be 
applied to restore all to nature's normal condition. 

A man when he is acting according to habit, always 
thinks he is acting according to nature, for, as has been 
shown, there is no distinction in consciousness, between 
habit and nature. Some of the most unnatural tones and 
inflections, some of the most perverted movements and 
positions, some of the most abnormal actions in breathing 



Development of the Organism. 245 

and voice production, have been defended by the pos- 
sessor of them as being natural to him. However 
"throaty" or "nasal" his voice, he feels it is his voice, 
however constricted his action, he feels it is his action, 
and, as has been shown, many educated men can not con- 
ceive the difference between what habit has made a man, 
and what nature intended him to be. 

Thus, to develop and make perfect the expression, no 
deliberative key is given man. No wonderful explanation 
or guide can, in a flash, do the whole work. It can only 
be done effectively by a thorough study of men's needs 
and habits, and educating them by a thorough training, 
such as will restore the subtlest muscles and nerves to 
their normal actions. 

There is another reason why there should be training 
for the organism in expression. We find in the nature of 
expression that all the mechanical action must be trans- 
parent. Mechanical actions are never seen when expres- 
sion is perfect. A great orator does not think of his 
voice unless there is something wrong with it, nor does 
his audience. If he is hoarse, he will think of it himself 
and his audience will notice it. If his voice is cramped 
and constricted, it will be at once felt as a voice, and if it 
is felt merely as a voice, expression is hindered; but if it 
is a channel of emotion, the audience loses sight of the 
mechanical means, and feels the thought and emotion 
tha.t is conveyed. So it is in pantomime ; if gesture 
or attitudes are proper, they will not be noticed ; if 
affected, or over-nice, or labored or merely aggregated, 
they will be seen at once. 

Thus, the object of all training is to make mechanical 
actions transparent ; to remove all consciousness of the 
action of the mechanism. If all true expression is a man- 
ifestation of the mystic, the operation must be such that 



246 Search for Method. 

the attention of the audience must not be drawn to the 
organism of the speaker. In proportion as the actions of 
the organism are concealed will the mystic be manifested. 
Presenting mere body to men is merely exhibition ; as has 
been shown, entirely foreign to the true aim in expres- 
sion. We train the body to get it out of consciousness, 
to make it a perfect channel for expression. A story is 
told of Peter the Great : That on his way home from 
church one Sunday morning, he said : " I like to hear this 
Father preach. After hearing the Court preachers, as I 
go home I always say 'what a beautiful sermon/ but 
when I hear this Father I always go home saying to 
myself, 'what a poor miserable sinner I am." So it is 
ever with true expression ; deep feelings are awakened in 
us, and we almost lose sight of the artist. While in one 
who makes a mere performance, we think only of the per- 
son ; we lose sight of his thought, we are not aroused, 
but only look at his execution, hence we see the force of 
the saying of Goethe, " It is the highest art to conceal 
art," for the greatest art conceals the means by which 
the effect is produced. The means or technique must be 
lost. The object must be to manifest and reveal the souk 
Again, the necessity or rather a basis for training is 
seen in the relation of body to being. Note some of the 
facts which are given us by writers who have studied the 
relation of the mind to its physical organism. Note, for 
example, the law of diffusion as stated by Bain : "When 
an impression is accompanied with, feeling, the aroused 
currents diffuse themselves freely over the brain, leading 
to a general agitation of the moving organs, as well as 
affecting the viscera." A vast number of facts " showing 
that the connection of mind and body is not occasional 
or partial, but thorough-going and complete," have been 
gathered by scientists. "It has been noted," says Bain, 



Development of the Organism. 247 

"in all ages and countries, that the feelings possess a 
natural language or expression. So constant are the 
appearances characterizing the different classes of emo- 
tions, that we regard them as a part of the emotions 
themselves. The smile of joy, the puckered features in 
pain, the stare of astonishment, the quivering of fear, the 
tones and glance of tenderness, the frown of anger, are 
united in seemingly inseparable association with the 
states of feeling that they indicate. If a feeling arises 
without its appropriate sign or accompaniment, we 
account for the failure either by voluntary suppression, or 
by the faintness of the excitement, there being a certain 
degree or intensity requisite to affect the bodily organs." 
"Most of our emotions," says Darwin, "are so closely con- 
nected with their expression, that they hardly exist if the 
body remains passive. A man, for instance, may know- 
that his life is in the extremest peril and may strongly 
desire to save it ; yet, as Louis XVI said, when sur- 
rounded by a fierce mob, 'Am I afraid? Feel my pulse.' 
So a man may intensely hate another; but until his 
bodily frame is affected, he cannot be said to be enraged." 
Thus we can see that while the body is most intimately 
connected with being, the transmission, and to a certain 
extent the character of the emotion, at any rate so far as 
it appears to others, is dependent upon the condition of 
the bodily organs. Nothing shows the importance of 
training to expression so much as the intimacy of soul 
and body. In fact, true training for expression is as 
much a mental act as a physical act. It is the putting of 
mind into the muscles, it is almost a conscious diffusion 
of emotion through the nervous system. The action of 
the mind may not be exactly the same as in actual expres- 
sion. There must be usually a sustained picture in the 
mind or at least a sustained general emotional condition 



248 Search for Method. 

which shall bring the soul to bear upon the body. Here 
is the chief difference between this form of training and 
gymnastics. When the mind is blank in a vocal exercise, 
as is the case with ordinary gymnastics, poor results will 
follow. True training for expression demands thought 
and feeling, even in a mechanical exercise. A purely 
mechanical action does not affect the deep, unconscious 
actions of our being. 

We are very apt, as these scientists have evidently 
done, merely to study this intimate connection independ- 
ent of any possibility of improving it, while to us in our 
present investigation the great question ever arises, how 
can the voice and the body be improved as the agents of 
expression ? Thus, if the human body and the human 
voice were normal, and were not perverted by habit, if 
they were developed fully from the very beginning, like 
the legs of a bird, such a course of training would be 
unnecessary; a little struggle, a little external experi- 
ment, and the bird flies to the highest possibilities of its 
nature. But such is not the case with man ; man's gifts 
are given him in a state of incompleteness and inade- 
quacy. He has to develop all his powers ; his gifts are 
given him in a state of possibility, and he can only enter 
into possession of them by patient discipline and long, 
continued struggle. So that the artistic control of body 
by being is no exception to the general rule. 

Is there such a science as a science of training ? We 
look in vain for general principles, and light upon the 
subject. All the work of our gymnastics is simply 
empirical ; beneath it all there is little or no science of 
training ; there has been in recent years a great study of 
physiology in relation to exercise. A book very recently 
issued, on the Physiology of Bodily Exercise, enters 
most fully and faithfully into the subject; but of the 



Development of the Organism. 249 

general principles by which the body can be improved for 
the purposes of expression, little or nothing can be found. 
While the voice has been trained, and wonderfully 
trained, for thousands of years, yet the general principles 
by which it is done, have never yet been placed in a 
shape which is worthy to be called the science of vocal 
training. We have had recently a vast amount of 
explanation of the anatomy and physiology of the voice, 
just as in other forms of so-called training ; but there is 
no systematic presentation of principles to be found 
anywhere. And yet, when we consider the vast advance 
which has been in all biological science, when it is con- 
sidered how thoroughly every difficulty in anatomy and 
physiology has been investigated, and how thoroughly 
the physiological development of all animals, including 
man, is understood, we feel at once the possibilities of a 
science as well as an art of training. We feel that all 
the knowledge of organism can be used to adopt move- 
ments and exercises, such as will bring an imperfect 
organism to perfection ; restore abnormal conditions, cor- 
rect the effects of habit, remove all stiffness and constric- 
tion ; in short, lift man to such an ideal physical condition 
that when once he has the proper conception, and the 
proper impulse and the proper method, the body will 
properly respond ; at any rate, there will be no mere 
physical hinderance that will prevent the proper co-or- 
dination of the conscious with the unconscious action, 
and all friction will be removed from the whole body. 

The one who objected to the necessity of training the 
mind in expression will object to the long and patient 
work required for the preparation of the organism. 

Such a one will say, why not simply tell the man how 
to stand and place his head, his arms, his feet, his body, 
in the right relations, and that is all there is to do. In 



250 Search for Method. 

other words, why not seek at once for the end ? If all 
expression were deliberative this method would possibly 
be correct. If the aim of education is to bring all into 
the conscious sphere, there might be some excuse for 
this. But training tends to make everything spontane- 
ously right. Any other course would not be training, but 
mere mechanical adjustment. The only method worthy 
the name of training must be such as will remove the 
effects of evil habit, and restore nature herself to the 
normal functioning for all purposes whatever. If a man 
has to stand in an artificial position, though to all appear- 
ances it be mechanically correct, yet until correctness is 
spontaneous, all will be artificial and constrained. If 
nature is not centered or normal the spontaneous actions 
of the speaker's nature will be necessarily perverted. 
External constriction or mechanical interference is not 
training. Training restores all parts of the body to their 
normal relationship, opens all the channels of expression, 
so that the emotion will normally diffuse itself in all 
directions, co-ordinate all parts of the body about their 
intended center, and develop all in unity and harmony. 

There are many other misconceptions of training. 
One is that all training simply means the acquirement of 
strength. Men will go to work upon the voice merely 
making loud noises. In training the body nearly every 
one will think the ordinary gymnastics is meant, but this 
is not the case. Ordinary gymnastic work tends to make 
men awkward and to hinder expression in many ways. 
It tends to pervert the method of breathing. I have had 
to have students stop gymnastic work before I could 
relieve them from sore throats. The only training that 
will bring the body under control of being is that which 
will establish its center, develop precision and ease in 
the action of every part and co-operation of all the agents, 



Development of the Organism. 251 

such as will develop internal rather than external mus- 
cles, the more subtle as well as the larger muscles. 

The only point here, however, is to prove the necessity 
of training, and not to go into the great subject of what 
is to be done in order to train the voice, and body. 
These will each require a volume. That there is a sci- 
ence of training must be here assumed. 

We can see that all expression presupposes two things. 
First, a correct action of the faculties of the soul, and 
secondly, a normal action of the organic means which 
transmit the action of the soul. Not only must the mind 
act properly, but there must be in addition, a plastic body, 
a responsive voice, and all the faculties and agents of the 
man brought to conscious and unconscious co-ordination 
by training ; these are necessarily presupposed in all 
great and effective expression. 

Men are very apt to think when imperfect action exists 
in any of these, that there is no remedy ; they look upon 
the action of these as simply the man himself; the power 
to transform these actions is ever forgotten. A majority 
of failures in our oratoric delivery and expression in every 
form, are caused by the mere fact of inadequate develop- 
ment. In all these specific lines, faults of expression can 
be traced to physical as well as psychic causes. Until all 
our modern knowledge of the body, and of the soul, and 
of the relation of each to the other, until all our knowl- 
edge of the voice, its structure, its physiology and its use, 
can be practically applied to form a science and art of 
training, until methods can be formulated that will 
correct all abnormal action, and develop voice and body 
according to nature's normal intention to the very high- 
est efficiency, all work for the improvement of delivery 
will be external, superficial and inadequate. 



XIV. 
SPECIAL TECHNICAL TRAINING. 

This is an art 
Which does mend Nature — change it rather ; but 
The art itself is Nature. — Shakespeare. 

The importance of training the mind in expression has 
been illustrated. It has also been shown that while the 
proper conceptive and methodic actions of the mind are 
the most fundamental and necessary factors, still these 
alone will not necessarily cause perfect expression. The 
body may have become so perverted by habit, so estab- 
lished in abnormal action, that though the general cause 
of this abnormal action be removed, there is still a tend- 
ency for the body and the voice to go on in the old way ; 
and the fault will remain. Man's body, and his vocal 
agents by evil habits may become a cage for the conceal- 
ment and imprisonment of the emotions of the soul, 
instead of a living, plastic organism, manifesting its most 
subtle disposition and activities. Even without such hab- 
its, the voice and body are given to man as crude possi- 
bilities, which must be disciplined and trained for their 
work. Accordingly, adequate delivery presupposes a pre- 
paratory training of the mind, the voice and body, thus 
securing control over cause and means ; but to secure the 
effect something else is needed. In order to have per- 
fect musical expression, the musician not only must have 
music in his soul, and an instrument in tune, but skill to 
play upon that instrument. The same is true in every 
form of vocal and pantomimic expression. The psychic 
requisites for perfect delivery, as we have found, are not 
only thought and feeling in the soul of the man, but 



Special Technical Training. 253 

proper action of the reproductive faculties, and respons- 
iveness of the whole nature, causing a co-ordinate experi- 
ence to be revealed simultaneously with the representation 
of thought. Then the organic instruments, or means to 
be used, must be perfectly attuned to their work. 

But there is something more ; the man must have ade- 
quate skill in the use of these agents. A speaker may 
have an emotional responsiveness to thought, and both 
ideas and emotion co-ordinate under the control of will ; 
and he may have a voice and body perfectly attuned, until 
all the channels of expression are responsive ; but still he 
may fail to have adequate expression by mere misconcep- 
tion, misuse of the means, or through lack of skill in exe- 
cution. He may fail through ignorance of what to do 
and how to do it. The voice and the body must not only 
be trained properly, but must be used properly. The 
piano must not only be in tune but the one who plays 
must be skillful in the manipulation of its keys. The 
third form of training, therefore, is in respect to the 
proper use of all agents in expression, and the co-ordina- 
tion of all the languages given to man for the manifesta- 
tion of his thoughts, feelings and purposes. 

There is a right way and a wrong way of doing every- 
thing. Sorrow may be expressed by minor inflections and 
tremolos in the voice, or it may be expressed by deeper 
and more intense control of the breathing, or through 
color of the voice caused by modulating the texture of 
the muscles by the diffusion of emotion. Though the 
first way is justified by some of the highest elocutionary 
standards, yet by an observer of nature, it can be seen at 
once that one is the language of weakness, while the 
other is the manifestation of strength. It does not 
explain the difficulty to say that the one who expresses 
weakness does not have control over his breath. This is 



254 Search for Method. 

of course true, but by thoroughly training the voice we 
find there is an additional work to be done. Direct prac- 
tice in the rendering of emotion is necessary. For there 
is an almost universal tendency in those who are 
untrained in expression to either repress all emotion or to 
express feeling, and especially pathos, so as to give an 
impression of weakness rather than strength. Besides, 
the man must be given a higher conception of the func- 
tion of art and the relation of art to nature. 

In our study of the problem of expression we have 
found that man possesses many languages for the expres- 
sion of a given idea or emotion. There are an infinite 
number of ways by which experience can be revealed, and 
one of the most common faults in expression is the em- 
ployment of one language or of one part of the body too 
exclusively. Men fall into the habit of using only one 
limited phase of natural languages, with a body that can 
be made flexible and responsive to every phase of experi- 
ence and capable of a great variety of movements and 
actions ; speakers form the habit of using only one or two 
gestures. Many speakers use only one agent of the 
body, all the other parts of the body being practically 
useless if they are not contradicting the agent acting. 
Others only use the head, while all the rest of the body, 
when moving at all, is only in subservience to the head. 
The same is true of the voice. With a voice capable of a 
wide range, many speakers use only two or three notes as 
the utmost limit of the extension of the voice in response 
to emotion. With a voice capable of an infinite variety 
of modulation of its textures, an infinite number of quali- 
ties, which we may call tone color, we find speakers 
almost universally obliterating the great plenitude of 
nature, and using only a neutral quality of voice, cold and 
lifeless, which irritates the nerves of even the speaker 



Special Technical Training. 255 

himself. It not only rasps the sensibilities of his audit- 
ors, but fails to reveal the varying shades of experience 
upon whose revelation the interpretation of truth depends. 

Thus we can see, that in order to bring all the different 
languages of the man into unity and harmony, it is not 
only necessary that the agents by which they are pro- 
duced shall be normally adjusted and in proper condition, 
but the special meaning of each language, and the spe- 
cial functions it was intended to discharge, must be stud- 
ied, and skill acquired in the execution of its fundamental 
actions. 

We can find another illustration of the need of train- 
ing, if we look again at the person who speaks naturally 
and with ease in private life to one or two persons. We 
find, when he rises to speak upon a grand theme for a 
given length of time, to a thousand people, everything 
must be enlarged ; not only must there be more energy, 
more breath, but longer and more salient inflections, 
although the essential elements of the form must remain 
the same, or he is unnatural. As in the enlargement of a 
photograph, all parts must be enlarged in the same ratio, 
so the fundamental inflections, their relations and the 
intervals between words must be simply extended in exact 
proportions. But this is exactly what the untrained 
speaker does not do. His melody reminds one of the 
enlargement of the photograph of a face where only the 
nose is increased in size. The volume of the voice is 
increased, but there is no increase of the inflections and 
intervals, hence everything is abnormal. Instead of the 
range of the voice being increased, the inflections and the 
intervals between words are shorter, and the whole range 
of the voice is more limited than in conversation. Here 
we find a fundamental characteristic of all declamatory 
unnaturalness ; there is always a tendency to increase the 



256 Search for Method. 

volume without extending the range of the voice. The 
only real prevention of such a fault is the development of 
the proper flexibility of the voice, a training of the organ- 
ism to its highest efficiency, and also an understanding of 
the work to be done, of the essential actions that are the 
elements of naturalness and effectiveness, and a mastery 
of these, so as to be able to enlarge and accentuate them 
and yet preserve their proportion. 

Thus it may be seen, that the action of man's organism 
in oratory must differ from that in private life, and what 
is meant by naturalness, must refer to the fundamental 
elements, and not to the degrees of force. If any one 
who has all his life spoken with ease, but only to a small 
group, in conversation, should suddenly be called upon to 
speak to a thousand people, he not only finds himself in a 
new situation, but face to face with the necessity of doing 
certain physical things with which he has never been 
familiar. In endeavoring to do this, he is apt to become 
mechanical, to merely look at the muscular method of 
doing his work, and hence to lose all spontaneity. He 
enlarges his voice mechanically and becomes unnatural 
and labored, because he has not been trained to enlarge 
the subtle fundamental elements which make the conver- 
sation natural when he tries to speak louder. He speaks 
often upon a higher pitch, and loses the fundamental ele- 
ments of inflection, and change of pitch. To illustrate 
more specifically, there must be an increase in what Dr. 
Merkle calls "the vocal struggle"; but if this vocal 
struggle is increased by introducing the action of the 
muscles used in labored breathing, as is very apt to be 
done, without increasing the amount of breath in the 
lungs, the throat will be constricted, and the true quality 
of the tone will be more or less destroyed. The result in 
a little while is sore throat, and in many cases failure. 



Special TecJinical Training. 257 

Here we have in a sentence the history of many young 
clergymen, teachers and speakers. 

It is not necessary to carry the illustrations further, as 
this form of training is more universally recognized than 
the others. Some points of difference between this and 
the technique of other arts and some misconceptions, 
however, should not pass unnoticed. 

It can be seen at once that the technical skill to be 
obtained in expression must be somewhat different from 
an art like music. For the body is more than an instru- 
ment, it is an organism. The mind and the body we 
have found to be inseparably connected so as to exert 
continually a very great influence upon each other. Mind, 
we find, absolutely requires a physical organism as the 
means of its revelation, and the influence of the one upon 
the other is direct, and by unconscious co-ordination. So 
that it can never be the same as the relation between the 
musician and the piano. In the one case the skill 
obtained is entirely the result of deliberative acts of will, 
the result of choice and of long-continued practice ; but 
in the other case, there is a necessary physiological and 
organic unity. 

Still, though different from other forms of art there is 
as much necessity for technical training. In fact, there is 
a special necessity for preparatory training, on account 
of this organic connection and the element of habit. 
There is a habitual use of the organism from childhood, 
which may or may not be correct ; at any rate, it is inad- 
equate for some of the higher and grander forms of 
expression demanding a stronger execution, and a more 
ideal manifestation of the experience of the race. Such 
technical training is absolutely necessary, not only the 
preparatory training to remove the effects of habit, which 
has been discussed, but a training to cause the body and 



258 Search for Method. 

the voice to act according to their normal intention and 
to accomplish the highest possible results. 

There is an old adage which has been applied to every 
phase of art. " You cannot learn to swim without going 
into the water." In the discussion here of the proper 
action of the mind in expression, and the necessity of the 
preparatory training of the voice and the body, it may be 
thought by some that we are endeavoring to prove this 
old adage wrong and that expression is to be improved 
indirectly, without direct practice in expression itself ; 
that we are first to secure proper action of the mind ; 
secondly, to train the voice and body, and then the man 
is simply to obey his impulses. But this is not what is 
here contended for. While the training of the voice and 
body must be separate and must usually precede techni- 
cal execution, yet we can see at once that most of the 
exercises to develop proper action of the mind must con- 
sist in the direct work of expression itself. 

We can see that all phases of the development of 
expression are intimately connected with each other. 
They can not be separated. It has been shown already 
how intimately connected are mental action and organic 
training ; but mental action is still more intimately inter- 
twined with technical action. In the first place, every 
technical step must be traced to its mental cause. Men- 
tal action is the only safeguard for the highest technique. 
One reason why Rush made the great mistake of advocat- 
ing " minor inflections," "semitonic melodies," "intermit- 
tent stresses," and the like for the expression of sorrow, 
was because he found these things in life, and never looked 
at their mental and emotional cause. He thus failed to 
note that they are always used in weakness, either in 
weak men or in cases where emotion is no longer under 
control. The use of the guttural quality of voice by elo- 



Special Technical Training. 259 

cutionists in rendering ideal poetry and noble emotion 
is due to the same cause. If the cause of such tones in 
character and experience had been examined, such a per- 
version of art would have been impossible. It was the 
failure to compare the actions upon which technique was 
founded with the actions of the mind, that caused and 
still causes much elocutionary art to be led astray from 
strength and truth. Character, thought and emotion 
are thus the real foundation of all technique. The power 
of the mode of emphasis to reveal the mind and to affect 
in the right way another mind must ever furnish the test 
of correctness. 

We have another fundamental difference so far as the 
acquirement of the technical skill is concerned between 
expression as an art and an art like music. Though all 
true art requires the mind to be centered upon the idea 
rather than on modes of execution, still in the practice of 
music the mind can be more upon the technique, while in 
expression, the attention must primarily be upon the 
action of the mind. In fact, technique must not be prac- 
tice for its own sake, with the exception of a few ele- 
mental actions. All technique in delivery must be evolved 
from the action of the mind. The necessity for the tech- 
nique must be found in the nature of experience, for 
whatever there is in experience we can find some mode 
of revealing ; and true technical work in expression con- 
sists in finding the essential forms of experience and the 
corresponding fundamental actions, in developing such 
actions to the highest efficiency and in bringing them 
into harmony with other phases of experience and their 
modes of manifestation. 

To illustrate further : one of the fundamental technical 
points in elocution is phrasing. Now many have taken 
this as a mere technical or mechanical point, and estab- 



260 Search for Method. 

lished rules for its execution ; in fact, in one import- 
ant work on Elocution we have such rules as these laid 
down for phrasing : We are to pause before prepositions, 
before relative pronouns, after an extended subject, after 
every complete phrase, and the like ; or, rules which have 
an element of truth in them, but are founded upon a study 
of the external form or the grammatical relations of the 
words. We have found that the mind progresses by a 
series of pictures, being successively focused upon each. 
If we study the way this action of the mind is naturally 
expressed in conversation, we find. each picture brings 
the words belonging to it into a group. Here, then, we 
have a technical point obtained in the proper way ; it is 
not a mere arbitrary rule, it is founded upon nature's own 
methods. Technique in an objective art like painting may 
possibly be the result of an arbitrary rule, but in a sub- 
jective natural art like expression, there can be no rule; 
everything must be the direct action of nature, and the 
technical training must be founded upon both the psychic 
and the physiological laws of man's being. 

Many illustrations could be given, showing that all 
principles of expression must be founded on a direct 
study of the action of the mind, and the effect of such 
action upon the voice and body in conversation ; thus the 
art of expression is more immediately founded upon the 
study of nature and the subjective soul than any other 
art ; its very technique must be founded upon the effect 
of the actions of the mind, extended and developed and 
trained to their highest efficiency. 

Nothing can furnish a substitute for direct and definite 
practice, persevering struggles and endeavors to reveal 
every emotion of the soul most effectively. All reformers 
in education have held that in some form, education must 
not be the mere acquirement of information ; the acquire- 



Special Technical Training. 261 

ment of ideas must be ever followed by some kind of 
practice. While "to know" may be a high aim in educa- 
tion, "to do" and "to be" are still higher. While char- 
acter or being is the highest aim of all education, 
"doing" must not be despised, because it is the only 
mode by which knowledge can be translated into being. 
"To know what to do and to do it enables a man to 
become in being what he is in knowledge." 

In all education skill in execution must in some way be 
trained, in every artistic phase of education this is funda- 
mentally necessary. In all modern education men have 
been filled with information, and this may be one reason 
why artistic education is so greatly neglected. Still 
another reason is, that the artistic phase of education is 
far more difficult ; it is a far easier thing to obtain knowl- 
edge than to obtain skill in the manifestation and use of 
that knowledge. The love of truth is inherent in man, 
and can be easily stimulated and cultivated ; but attain- 
ment and skill in artistic execution, though equally inher- 
ent, requires hard work, patience and long application. 
Beside, much of the practice called for is mechanical and 
uninteresting. While in the acquirement of knowledge 
there is great enjoyment from the first. All this is 
especially true of vocal expression ; there is not much 
inspiration in work to make a voice flexible, or upon the 
muscles of the body to make them plastic. Young men 
studying for a profession can be easily inspired over the 
great principles of law, or great theories of theology ; the 
whole soul may be awakened in the contemplation of such 
subjects ; but to attain skill in execution speakers must 
stand upon their feet and practice long hours upon simple 
vocal exercises or physical movements ; and above all, 
in patient struggles to render the deep phases of human 
experience. 



262 Search for MetJwd. 

But there is no other way in any art, and histrionic 
art, as can be seen, is no exception. A great lawyer is 
not merely one who possesses great knowledge of the 
law ; a great teacher is not merely one whose head is 
crammed full of facts ; a great preacher is not one who is 
merely versed in all the great problems of theology ; it is 
not the artist alone who is measured by what he can do ; 
every man who accomplishes great things for the race is 
so estimated. But above all, in every phase of oratory or 
expression, the speaker not only needs a knowledge of 
the true, the beautiful and the good, but there must be 
worked out an ideal in his soul and body and voice. He 
must have skill not only to comprehend ideas but to 
render every idea and phase of experience. 



XV. 

CRITICISM. 

Lorsque nous croyons tenir la verite par un endroit, elle nous ecappe par mille autres. 

— Vauvenargues. 

We have thus found some facts showing the complex 
nature of expression, and the still more complex problem 
of its development. In work which is so complex, so 
infinitely varied as this, so intimately connected with 
Nature herself in all its processes, no mechanical rules 
can be laid down. Nature's own subtle processes must 
be studied, and her own methods discovered and followed. 
But even after all our knowledge of the nature of expres- 
sion, of its causes, its methods and modes of execution, 
good and bad, we still meet another great difficulty in our 
work of developing its power. After a thorough under- 
standing of the nature of man, of his mind, of his body 
and of his voice ; after a thorough knowledge of the 
actions, normal and abnormal, of all the faculties and 
agents in expression ; after a thorough study of the proc- 
esses of nature, how nature grows or retrogrades; still, 
deeper than all this knowledge must be a power of intui- 
tive or instinctive insight into the fundamental needs of 
men. The teacher must have the power to see what a 
man ought to be, as well as what he is ; and he must 
have insight into methods which are in accordance with 
nature's fundamental modes, and that can be so applied as 
to stimulate the man out of his actual condition along 
the lines of nature's ideal intentions. This new phase 
of the work may be called criticism. 

It is very difficult to find any statement of the canons 
of criticism, notwithstanding the innumerable works upon 



264 Search for Method. 

the subject. Many think there are no great universal 
principles, so that it is difficult to find even an adequate 
definition of the term. 

One teacher has endeavored to get several of our 
dramatic critics to give a talk to students upon the laws 
of dramatic criticism, to assist them in judging their own 
and others' work more intelligently. But so far he has 
failed to find one to appear before a class of students and 
talk over any of the general principles or reasons upon 
which he is accustomed to found his opinions. 

There are many reasons for this hesitation. The sub- 
ject is a difficult one, though it seems so simple. The 
standards of criticism have been changed in every age. 
In every great era of literature artists have arisen who 
have broken all the universally accepted rules. Demos- 
thenes broke a principle of the Greek art of oratory at 
the close of his greatest oration. Shakespeare disobeyed 
and entirely ignored the unities which had governed the 
drama with a rod of iron from the time of the Greeks. 
Consciously or unconsciously, according to one great 
critic, he rose to a higher unity, to a deeper principle, 
which includes all that is important in the three, that is, 
the "unity of character." The greatest critic of Words- 
worth's age. said, "This will never do," and while he 
greatly hindered the influence of Wordsworth, and possi- 
bly fettered the genius and work of the poet, yet Words- 
worth held out against the critic until the world came 
around to his view. For the last fifty years the critics 
have been struggling to find some principle by which to 
criticise the poetry of Robert Browning, until at last, 
except a few who are behind the times, even those who 
can not approve his work, are cautious in speaking of him. 

As we look over the great criticisms of the past, we 
find an innumerable number of complete failures. In the 



Criticism. 265 

diary of Pepys we find eulogy after eulogy pronounced 
upon dramatists who have long been completely forgotten, 
while we find many a sneer at the plays of Shakespeare, 
which are now the admiration of the world. 

Even Shakespeare himself was affected by the critical 
judgment of his time so that he hardly dared to trust his 
own judgment. He actually thought Ben Jonson a 
greater artist than himself, and no doubt the critics of his 
time, though not the general public, were of this view. 
Hear Shakespeare in one of his sonnets : 

" When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, 

I all alone beweep my outcast state, 
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries, 

And look upon myself, and curse my fate, 
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, 
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, 

With what I most enjoy, contended least," etc. 

It is in the criticism upon the greatest artists that the 
greatest mistakes have been made. No great original 
artist has ever lived who did not receive much contempo- 
rary criticism that, long years after, has caused the world 
to smile. Hence, the greatest critics of the present time 
are extremely cautious in expressing their judgment, 
while the poorer class of critics conceal their real convic- 
tions beneath vague generalities. 

Criticism is not merely retrospective. The world's 
conception of a critic is one who thoroughly understands 
the past achievements of art, and who judges each new 
artist by the past. But by such a standard the great art- 
ist whose work opens an entirely new field, is ever mis- 
conceived and misjudged. Such criticism is ever laughed 
at by succeeding generations. True criticism is prospect- 
ive as well as retrospective, is prophetic as well as 
historical. 



266 Search for Method. 

But much of our criticism is worse than this, it is 
merely a comparison by the critic of what he does not 
like with what he likes. It contains no insight, no sym- 
pathy, no dramatic element ; he does not see anything 
from another's point of view, but looks at everything only 
from his own narrow conception, and thus misses the 
most fundamental element of its truth and power. The 
critics upon Wordsworth only compared, consciously or 
unconsciously, his work with the poetry of Pope, upon 
which they had fed for many years. Filled with admira- 
tion of Pope in criticising poetry, they were only looking 
for another Pope, and were wholly unprepared for the 
new departure. Where criticism is merely such a com- 
parison, it is unworthy of the name ; it only does harm, 
it hinders the progress of art, it kills many a sensitive 
and delicate Keats who has " fished a murex up," which 
will give color to the poetry of all after time. We can 
thus see that criticism is a dangerous thing, even in the 
humblest form. When wrong it limits nature, fetters the 
spontaneity of genius, kills enthusiasm, and restrains the 
sympathetic response which springs up in the heart of 
people for a great artist and causes men to stone the 
prophet that is sent unto them. 

Criticism is not the comparison of one man with 
another. One button may be compared with another and 
criticised as to its imperfections, but it is unfair to com- 
pare a willow leaf with an oak leaf. Everything in nature 
is original ; everything is made to carry out a specific 
intention. The folly of this method of criticism was long 
ago treated of in the old Greek fable of the debate 
between the stomach and the other members of the body. 
Criticism must not be an external comparison ; it must 
look to ideal intention ; to a deeper relationship ; and no 
man can criticize his fellow-man till he more or less rises 



Criticism. 267 

to such a height as to see something of the ideals, con- 
scious and unconscious, that have caused the result. 
Nothing is so great a manifestation , of weakness as the 
appearance of similarity among men. Mere social pup- 
pets who are made alike by conventionalities are of 
no use to the world. The strong man is ever the one 
who is most himself, most original, who thinks his own 
thoughts. Criticism, therefore, must not be a comparison 
of one man with another, or of one man's work with 
another's. The type may be different, the purposes may 
be different ; the standard of criticism, if standard there 
be, can not be gained from mere study of one man or of 
any particular set of men. 

Again, criticism is not fault-finding. The greatest 
fault-finders are always the poorest critics, and the best 
critics are rarely fault-finders. Mr. W. H. Pater has 
called one of his books upon criticism " Appreciations," 
not that he might use, as Mr. Weller would say, " a more 
tenderer word," but doubtless to emphasize the true 
or at least the chief function of criticism. 

Again, we know that criticism is not always temporary. 
There are criticisms which have lived forever. The criti- 
cism of Shakespeare upon the players of his time is a 
criticism for the theater of any age. The little critical 
book sometimes attributed to Aaron Hill, written about a 
hundred and fifty years ago, is still worthy to be read and 
studied by every student of histrionic art. 

The reason why criticism is temporary, and its laws 
so inadequate, is because its suggestions are little more 
than rules. They are not laws, for the laws of nature do 
not change. All suggestions are more or less upon the 
surface. The canons which have been formulated in 
relation to criticism are only the characteristics of one 
work of art, elevated into a rule for all art. 



268 Search for Method. 

True criticism is a comparison of the actual with the 
ideal. This is the only kind of criticism that is worthy 
the name. That criticism which compares the actual 
work of art with the ideal of its author and judges of the 
actual attainments by comparing them with the ideal 
possibilities, will last forever. Mistakes will be made, 
but a right path is laid open which will lead out of the 
mistakes. 

Nor is criticism the comparison of one man's ideal with 
another man's ideal. If one great artist erects a great 
cathedral in a certain position and another great artist 
comes along to criticise it, in proportion as he is a great 
artist will he be slow to find fault. He may at first as he 
looks at it think what he would have done, but he is very 
careful to make no comparison in this case. He tries to 
take in the whole situation and to look at all the phases 
of the situation, all the difficulties the artist had to 
encounter. He tries to get into the feeling of the artist's 
mind, and when he can say to himself, " I know what he 
tried to do," then he is able to give a just and adequate 
criticism. Anything short of this is mere fault-finding; 
it is mere comparative description, but is not true 
criticism. 

The artist Hunt was taken by a sculptor once to see a 
statue upon which he was at work. The sculptor asked 
the great artist for a criticism, but Hunt shook his head 
and said, " I will wait till I know where you are going to 
place it." He could not criticise till he knew the whole 
situation and could enter into sympathy with the com- 
plete conception of his fellow- artist. 

True criticism does not compare Shakespeare with 
^Eschylus and say that Shakespeare was no artist because 
his work does not possess the same characteristics as that 
of the Greek poet, but it takes Shakespeare and the age 



Criticism. 269 

in which he lived, the little province in which he moved, 
and studies his work and what he has done, ponders his 
great insight into character, studies him as a Christian 
poet and not as a Greek poet, as a romantic artist and 
not as a classic artist, looks at his little Globe Theater 
and the little narrow stage upon which were unfolded and 
represented all his mighty creations. The critic stands 
in the face of the little actual and gazes at the great ideal, 
at the great results, at the deep insight of the man into 
his time, and feels the sense of awe which comes from 
contact with one of the greatest of all earth's artists. If 
he goes back to the old Greek days and studies y£schy- 
lus and the men around him, the art of his time, the 
things that he endeavored to accomplish, and looks back 
upon him with sympathetic understanding of the results 
he tried to accomplish, then and then only, is he prepared 
to criticise the father of Greek drama, or to compare him 
with the greatest of the moderns. 

The critic may take an ideal conception of what a 
drama ought to be and compare a special writer's ideal 
with the universal ideal ; or he may compare the work of 
two dramatists with nature and with their different aims 
and the different circumstances under which their works 
were written. There must be frequently in criticism a 
comparison between two authors, but it is only a compari- 
son of work or a comparison of ideal with ideal in their 
relationship to the universal ideal, the different methods 
they employ in reaching this, and the degree of success 
which has crowned the effort of each, and it never make's 
the work of one man a standard for that of another. 

The requisites, therefore, of great criticism are first of 
all, insight into character, into poetry, into art, into the 
profoundest depths of human ideals and human endeavors. 
Let us illustrate this principle of criticism by the work 



270 Search for Method. 

of the greatest critic of our time. Mr. Matthew Arnold, 
just before his death, published a criticism upon America 
which was widely discussed and strongly resented. Now 
was it a true criticism or not ? If on the one hand it was 
a mere comparison of America with England, it was not 
a just criticism. Mr. Matthew Arnold was an English- 
man and from his childhood had been cradled in English 
customs. They were no doubt more comfortable to him 
because he was accustomed to them and was not accus- 
tomed to American ways. So that such criticisms would 
only be fault-finding. Besides, the vocation of England 
in history is different from the vocation of the United 
States. This is no disparagement to either nation. 
America could not, if she should try, become another 
England. There never can be another England. The 
historical outgrowth of the thousands of years under the 
same conditions will never occur again. What folly, 
then, to find fault with America because it is not like 
England. 

But if on the other hand Mr. Matthew Arnold made a 
thorough study of our country until he could enter sym- 
pathetically into all our customs and into all our needs, 
and could conceive in his mind what America ought to 
be, and was able to judge what she might be from what 
she is, then his criticism was a just one. It was a com- 
parison of a nation's actual with a nation's ideal. No 
doubt many of his criticisms were of this kind. Some 
belonged, probably, to the other class and were not criti- 
cisms at all. 

In Robert Browning's poem on Andrea del Sarto, we 
have one of the best examples of criticism in the world. 
Some one has said, " If we should take all the Cyclope- 
dias and all the knowledge which we can gather about 
Andrea del Sarto, and put them together, all would be 



Criticism. 271 

superficial and empty, but here we have a work of art." 
Browning penetrates into the real spirit of the man, feels 
the greatness of Andrea's ideals and the power of his 
execution, makes his ideal, as is the case with every 
artist, transcend his actual, and puts the criticism in the 
mouth of the artist himself. It is the artist himself who 
is realizing all his shortcomings. The penetration is so 
deep, the criticism upon his art work lays bare the deep- 
est motives of his soul and character. It reveals what 
Andrea felt and realized regarding his own life and his 
own art which he would hardly dare speak in words. 
The criticism is founded upon the deepest intuitive insight. 
We feel, also, the limitations of the man. We see him 
writhing under the degradation of his own character and 
art. We see one moment his ideal, and the next, his 
actual life and actions ; now his endeavor to make himself 
content with his actual, now a longing from the depths of 
his soul, "Oh, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp." 
Andrea compares himself with Raphael and Michael 
Angelo, but the comparison is ever the realization of his 
own deep needs. In a mere careless evening reverie 
and conversation, the whole soul, life and work of the 
man is laid bare. We behold the "faultless painter," 
rising on the wing of his own ideal, like an eagle, but we 
see the strings that are tied about his feet dragging him 
down every moment to the sordid, hypocritical, empty 
life he is living. We see him rise, at one moment, on 
the wing of what he might and could be under other 
circumstances, the next moment, we feel his own semi- 
conscious realization of the cord that drags him down 
into the dust. We see him face to face with the painting 
of Raphael, criticising Raphael and showing where his 
drawing is wrong ; but in a moment we see him drop his 
chalk, rub out his line and say, "The soul was right," and 



272 Search for Method. 

that though the technique might be imperfect and fall to 
earth, the soul rose to heaven. 

Such criticism is an art in itself, and in fact such must 
be the case with all true criticism. It must be governed 
by the highest artistic spirit. Mr. R. G. Moulton in his 
work on Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, has endeavored 
to apply an inductive method to criticism and thus to 
found what he calls a science of criticism. This is very 
well when he puts this in opposition to judicial criticism. 
All criticism must consist at times in gathering facts, and 
looking at all sides of a work of art. Thus I can agree 
with all Mr. Moulton has said ; but he does not go far 
enough. Criticism is founded, it may be, upon a scientific 
method, but it is an art and is amenable to the laws and 
methods of art. Such criticism does not cover all the 
ground. It might fully apply to the art of Zola, and it 
furnishes a great assistance to an introductory study of 
any author; but induction is an intellectual process. 
Such criticism covers only the intellectual facts of art. 
Criticism which stopped there would be almost as cold as 
mere conventional judicial criticism. True criticism, like 
all true art, must rise into the realm of appreciation and 
feeling. There must be imaginative insight as well 
as sympathetic, dramatic, intuitive assimilation. Mr. 
Moulton in his interpretive readings of literature, fur- 
nishes the best example of the truth of this. He aban- 
dons himself to emotions often too much, reading in a 
swing which is not the true metre or rhythm of the poem, 
but a mannerism of his own, which appears the same in 
nearly all his renderings ;' but he does give the feeling 
and spirit of the author and his art. Here is where such 
a method is superior to conventional, authoritative, dog- 
matic or judicial criticism. While it deals with the intel- 
lectual side, it does not fetter emotion. 



Criticism. 273 

But in the hands of one not dominated by noble feel- 
ing, such an inductive method of criticism would result 
in carrying science into the realm of art and in trying to 
measure and control imagination and feeling by reason. 
Such a course literally followed will kill the artistic spirit. 
The critic must know where to stop an intellectual proc- 
ess. Not by reasoning, but by an instinct as unerring as 
that of the creative artist himself. Not only so, but all 
his intellectual processes are only preparatory to a broader 
and deeper appreciation, so that the artistic critic can rise 
to a parallel interpretation, that by two personalities the 
mystery of art may be felt more effectively by all. The 
critic must have artistic feeling as well as the artist. The 
great trouble with criticism is not that it is judicial, but 
that its judgments are one-sided and premature. It is 
not subjective but objective. It is not imaginative, not 
sympathetic, not appreciative, not a harmonious union of 
science and art, but an invasion of the realm of art by the 
coldest scientific spirit. True criticism never stands off 
as any thing separate, much less superior to art ; but is 
itself an art governed by its deepest and most funda- 
mental principles. 

In the highest and best sense of the word all criticism 
must be essentially dramatic. The imaginative insight 
into another's conception, and the power to feel a situa- 
tion beyond a man's own soul and life are absolutely 
demanded before judgment can become any thing but 
mere fault-finding or flattery. If it is difficult for us to 
see ourselves as others see us, it is far more difficult to 
see another as he sees himself, or as he himself sees what 
he ought to be. But this is absolutely necessary or true 
criticism is impossible. 

One of the fundamental requisites of criticism, there- 
fore, must be insight into character, into motives and 



274 Search for Method. 

habits, and the ability to distinguish habit from nature. 
There must also be insight into nature's recuperative 
power, insight into hinderances, insight into the depths 
of the soul, a sympathetic appreciation of the ideal of 
another, the motives and possibilities of one often entirely 
foreign in spirit to ourselves. 

But the critical insight is more than dramatic. Dra- 
matic insight enables us to enter into sympathy with the 
Philip drunk, but critical insight enables us. in the Philip 
drunk to see the Philip sober and to appeal from the one to 
the other. The true critic not only sees the man as a liv- 
ing personality before him, with all his imperfections on 
his head, but sees into the struggles, into the guiding 
ideal, into the inspiring motive of the life, and even 
catches glimpses of his most latent possibilities. 

Of all men in the world, the. critic must not be a fault- 
finder. Above all, he must not be concerned with mere 
externalities. No critic is a critic until he can criticise 
from within out. So it was with Lamb, whose depth of 
imagination could penetrate into the ideal and mission of 
Wordsworth, into the beauty of his conceptions, the sim- 
plicity of his language, the delicacy of his imagination and 
the profundity of his insight into nature. It was only a 
Lamb who could free himself from the mechanical perfec- 
tions of Pope, that had ears to hear the new voice that 
spoke to the world. The gentle Lamb, whose dramatic 
criticisms were so wonderful that they are still studied 
with great care, almost alone of all the critics was able to 
penetrate into the ideal of Wordsworth. Knowing all the 
poetry of the past, he had so entered into sympathy with 
its higher ideals and tendency that he could see and 
appreciate the new departure. 

The same is true of the poetry of Browning. It has 
taken the world fifty years to get into a sufficient under- 



Criticism. 275 

standing of the meaning of the new voice, of its differ- 
ence from the old, of its meaning to the world, to bring 
forth any legitimate criticism. 

Most of the criticisms upon Browning have been 
merely a comparison of Browning with Tennyson, or 
with Wordsworth, or with some other poet. To criticise 
Browning we must be able to appreciate his ideal. We 
must get at the central word of his prophecy; we must 
even get at the conception of his ideas of art ; he may 
not only have an idea of what he is to do, but an idea of 
how he is to do it. 

There must also be a recognition of limitations. The 
critic must feel that mere external perfection may be the 
greatest weakness. True criticism is not merely con- 
cerned with external imperfections, but penetrates into 
the depths. W T hat flippant criticism can be offered upon 
David in the midst of his mistakes and failures ! and yet 
he is called "The man after God's own heart," a criticism 
which three thousand years have not reversed. 

We find in every man's heart two desires. The first is 
a desire to be judged by his fellow-men, a desire to know 
their opinion. There is everywhere by all aspiring souls 
a longing for true criticism. The world possibly needs 
less fault-finding, but it needs more criticism. Many a 
young man, many a young writer, many a young speaker 
has looked with longing to an older, and desired advice 
and suggestions, but has looked in vain. Side by side 
with this longing, a second and seemingly direct contra- 
diction rises up in the breast and says, "I am judged by 
no man, it is God who judges me." Both of these are 
right. The second is merely a reaction against the dull- 
ness of insight. Against the deep insight of true criticism 
there is no rebellion in noble souls. These long for those 
who can see into the depth of the soul, "the penetrating 



276 Search for Method. 

stream of tendency that makes for righteousness," the 
ideal intention of the nature of the man, conscious or 
unconscious, and nature's power to transform the abnor- 
mal into the normal. 

Here, then, is the province of criticism. It is the 
power of the soul of man to go beyond its own egoistic 
conceptions, and see others as they see themselves, and 
realize their highest possibilities often unknown to the 
men themselves. It is insight into an ideal, in the midst 
of a degraded actual, and into a method by which we can 
appeal to nature's recuperative power, and transform the 
actual into the ideal. 

Bad criticism is characterized either by fault-finding, or 
by flattery. The aim of criticism is not to praise, not to 
compliment, not to condemn, but to inspire. There must 
be no personal comparison, but the inspiration of a great 
personality. Bad criticism discourages a man, because it 
either compares him with another and so gives him no 
clear insight into his own possibilities, or offers no road 
to a higher plane, awakens no conception in the stu- 
dent of the connection of his actual and his ideal, gives 
him a false standard of comparison. Great criticism ever 
makes a man see better his own ideal, causes him simul- 
taneously to realize his own possibilities, as well as imper- 
fections. There is no comparison with others, but an 
awakening of a comparison in the student's own breast 
between what he is and what he can become. True criti- 
cism, therefore, sooner or later encourages, awakens hope 
and enthusiasm ; it makes man despise the low and mean, 
makes men often blame themselves for departures from 
their ideal, but ever "allures to brighter worlds, and leads 
the way " ; it ever shows the possibilities of the ideal in 
the actual. It shows man that here in his poor, miserable 
actual in which he now stands, is the beginning of his 



Criticism. 277 

ideal. It only discourages and displeases the self-satisfied 
and indolent — the man without an ideal. Whoever works 
by an ideal more severely measures his actual by it than 
any other can, and hence takes courage when another soul 
with insight into the situation reveals its impressions. 

Of the importance of this to the world, no word need 
be said. The great critic encourages the weak cause, he 
punctures shams it may be, exposes the hollowness of 
affectation, and the lack of foundation for all pretension, 
but he shows the world beauties which its dull eyes would 
not see, and shows the individual struggling artist a path, 
unseen before, that leads to higher destinies. 

There has been lately, a great deal of sneering at criti- 
cism. Men continue to quote Lord Beaconsfield's state- 
ments, that critics are simply artists or writers who have 
failed ; and many who have been unwilling to have their 
imperfections spoken of have endeavored to bring criti- 
cism into disrepute. But if criticism is founded upon the 
insight of one soul into the ideals of another, of the 
power to see nature's intentions regarding a man, of the 
man's own ideal, as well as actual attainments and limit- 
ations, whether as a writer, an artist or as a man ; and 
if criticism aims to make the man realize all this, we 
can see at once the necessity of criticism to the world. 
It has encouraged the faint-hearted, as often as it has dis- 
couraged the pretentious. 

There is nothing so encouraging as true criticism. A 
great artist, even like Shakespeare, only vaguely realizes 
^his own ideal, on account of the fact that they are so dif- 
ferent from the work about him, and in hours of dis- 
couragement often " longs for this man's art, and that 
man's scope." 

An artist ever criticises himself more severely than 
any one else. He knows more the imperfections of his 



278 Search for Method. 

work. He sees the shortcomings of his art, and for this 
reason, every great artist often goes to lay open his work 
before another, for suggestion and criticism, when he has 
brought himself seemingly against an impassable barrier. 
When a great critic endeavors to interpret his work as he 
conceives it, whether his estimate is quite right or not, it 
helps the artist to a wider view, leads him to understand 
certain hinderances, and enables him to remove them. 

After an -artist has brooded long over his work, at one 
time he feels its greatness, but often after he has fin- 
ished a work, sometimes his finest, he says he must try 
all over again. Here it is that the critic steps in with a 
fresh heart, with as high a power of appreciation, and the 
artist looks at his work through other eyes. Thus, if the 
inner life of every great artist could be seen, it would 
be found that criticism or the endeavors of others to 
express their appreciation has played a great role in his 
development. 

What a function is this ! what breadth of information 
is required ! what spiritual insight is necessary ! Well 
may it be said, that the great critics of the world have 
been few. It is not strange that men have hesitated to 
unfold the philosophy of such a subject, and that so few 
of our best critics have endeavored to give an explanation 
of the principles of their own work. 

There are many reasons why the subject should be 
discussed here. All true criticism is founded in dramatic 
instinct. The stage as "the mirror held up to nature" 
has ever been one of the chief means for the criticism of 
life ; and hence all histrionic expression is closely con- 
nected with, if it is not the fountain-head of all criticism. 
But the special reason is because expression can never be 
improved except by the aid of criticism. Criticism alone 
is inadequate ; but the best method of training can not 



Criticism. 279 

be applied except by skill in penetrating into the most 
fundamental needs of men. Hence it has been necessary 
to unfold the general nature of criticism in order to 
understand its complex nature in relation to the develop- 
ment of expression. The first requisite, as the man 
whose powers are to be improved stands before the 
teacher, is what may be called a psychic diagnosis. Crit- 
icism, for the purpose of improving expression, is not the 
same as that of a mechanical work of art. It is not the 
criticism of a statue before which we can stand and 
around which we can walk and upon which we can lay 
our measuring line. Criticism in expression is not a crit- 
icism upon a perfect whole or process, but upon what is 
imperfect in method and result. The teacher must study 
a young mind struggling to reveal itself, through an 
imperfect conception of the nature of expression, through 
imperfect action of the mind in realizing truth and experi- 
ence, and through imperfect conditions and improper use 
of his body and voice. 

I once asked a physician very skillful in diagnosis, to 
give me some of the principles upon which he acted in 
making up his judgment as to the nature of a disease; 
but he frankly told me he could not. He said there 
could be no rule. It had to come to him as he looked 
the man in the eye. It came from so many directions 
and diverse ways that it was impossible to formulate a 
general principle. If this is true of pathological diagno- 
sis, how much more must it be true of diagnosis into the 
normal and abnormal action of the faculties of the soul 
and agents of the body in expression. For a diagnosis 
of a student of expression is not merely physical and 
vocal, it is psychic. It is, in short, a diagnosis of the 
whole man, not merely as to character or aim or degree 
of culture, but as to the normal and abnormal action of 



280 Search for Method. 

all the faculties and agents of man in expression. The 
character of the student's train of ideas, the responsive- 
ness of feeling to ideas, the responsiveness of his body to 
emotion ; harmonious coordination of the whole body ; 
the action of the voice ; what nature intended him to 
be and what he is made by habit ; his peculiar tempera- 
ment and type as a man, his occupation, his health, are 
but a few of those points which sweep like lightning 
through the mind of the faithful teacher as he stands 
face to face with his pupil. The true teacher looks for 
his beginning not to a system, but to the individual needs 
before him. He must begin with the pupil where he is. 
He must have respect for the pupil's conceptions and his 
ideas as to the nature of expression. But above all he 
must have respect for the unconscious ideal. He must, 
in fact, have deeper insight into possibilities and needs, 
than the student has himself. It is only from such 
insight that a prescription can be made. Without such a 
conception all exercises given will be merely experiments. 

Then, again, there are subjective difficulties; all work 
to improve expression must be directed toward the cor- 
rection of wrong habit and the development of normal 
actions, and yet a man's consciousness makes no distinc- 
tion between habit and nature. Whatever a man is 
habitually, he thinks is normal and natural to him. This 
habit is called second nature, the aim of the teacher is to 
correct the "second nature," and bring the man back to 
fundamental nature. So that criticism must enter into 
the deepest life of the man, to enable him to distinguish 
between what is habit and what is nature. The pupil 
must be led so as to discover this himself, because it can 
not always be told or even shown. 

Again, in making careful estimate and judgment as to 
what will improve delivery, there must be an accurate 



Criticism. 281 

conception of the limitations that dwarf the possibilities 
of pupils, the hinderances that prevent the growth and 
development of their personalities. The teacher of 
expression at one time, may make a diagnosis which is so 
deep and searching that it may take many years to fulfill ; 
at another time he may have to teach some poor minister 
who comes to him to be corrected, in a few hours, of a 
sore throat, and yet in each case, like a physician, profes- 
sional honor demands of him to do his best. Again, if a 
man is to be a speaker, he must have a different diagno- 
sis from one who is to be an actor, a reader or teacher. 

Every danger in all kinds of criticism is found here, 
such as comparison of one person with another, getting a 
conception from one great artist, and endeavoring to 
make every thing conform to this standard. Trying to 
limit one personality to another, however great the model 
may be, is wrong. Every soul must be original. The 
only possibility for growth must be from a free soul, 
unfolding in its own way. Criticism which violates this, 
training which does not accomplish this, is false to 
nature's fundamental law. 

Still worse is that criticism which is founded upon the 
comparison of an individual in respect to his work in 
expression with an artificial system. A teacher has an 
idea of certain stresses of voice, and every example, how- 
ever well rendered and natural, must be made to con- 
form to the system. The first word in the sentence, 
"Angels and ministers of grace defend us," one author 
says must be given with a circumflex of an octave. This 
is absolutely false to the experience many must feel in the 
situation, but everybody must be governed by this partic- 
ular artist's mechanical system of giving such and such 
emotions with such and such inflections of a given 
mechanical length. 



282 Search for Method. 

Besides, there are especial dangers such as exist in no 
other kind of work. In criticisms upon books or art, the 
whole world stands ready to correct mistakes and the 
critic himself feels that at any moment he can be 
arraigned at the bar of public opinion, where his every 
sentiment will be tested by the ideas and convictions of 
other men. But the teacher of expression stands face to 
face with the one he is teaching, and has no such limita- 
tion, no such inspiration, no such help to correct mis- 
takes. Hence he is tempted unconsciously to fall back 
upon his own authority, measure all by his own opinion, 
to judge everything by his own little system, and to com- 
pare the pupil's voice or action with his own, independent 
of inherent differences of personality. 

Here we find the reason why great readers, great 
speakers and great actors have often been found poor 
teachers. Working out their own ideals and their own 
personalities, and becoming strong in their own way of 
doing things, they are apt to judge all others by them- 
selves. They often set themselves up as examples, 
rather than seeking to inspire the student to find out for 
himself. Such a teacher makes himself the model, con- 
sciously or unconsciously; thinking of what he can do 
himself, he is often unable to see differences and the pos- 
sibilities even in other men. A great teacher must lose 
his own self and find it in other men. He must bury his 
own way of doing things, that he may stimulate the ideas 
and conceptions of another soul. He must, of course, 
have had such experience himself as to realize his own 
possibilities, must have, himself gone through the strug- 
gles through which his pupil must go. He must be no 
mean reader, no mean speaker, no mean actor, but the 
greater portion of his work must be to hide himself and 
to awaken others. 



Criticism. 283 

But some one will say all this is general. How can 
such a theory be realized ? Is not such discussion, after 
all, mere speculation ? The simple aim of criticism is to 
tell a man his faults. But vast numbers, who are wholly 
untrained, are able to speak of faults. Their suggestions, 
however, are hardly worthy the name of criticism. The 
man himself gets little clew to his fundamental needs. 
Knowledge of a fault will only discourage a man until he 
can be conscious of its nature, its cause and some ade- 
quate mode of remedying it. True criticism does not 
deal so much with faults as to awaken a consciousness of 
the fundamental need lying beneath, and causing faults, 
and to suggest to the man proper modes of meeting 
this need. No absolutely perfect leaf can be found on 
earth. 

What good does it do to tell a man his voice is throaty 
or nasal or hard ? In a vast number of instances, such 
suggestions only make the faults worse, or in making 
efforts to correct them introduce others still worse. 
Take one of the worst of all faults, the so-called ministe- 
rial tone. Let a man be told that he has this fault, and, 
in trying to avoid it, he will often try to speak without 
any emotion at all, and sometimes endeavor to introduce 
colloquial circumflexes, thus developing abnormal condi- 
tions which are fully as bad, in many instances, as the 
fault he is trying to correct. 

How foolish, therefore, is the statement of a great pro- 
fessor in homiletics, made, I have heard, to his class, 
that it would be well enough for them to invest about a 
dollar in elocution, and have somebody tell them their 
faults. Alas, for such a misconception of the great 
problem of delivery. It is no wonder that our preachers, 
with such instruction, have such wretched delivery. It 
is no wonder, with such a conception of training, that 



284 Search for Method. 

everything belonging to delivery is too often superficial- 
ized and degraded. 

Hence, to correct a fault like the so-called ministerial 
tone, the teacher can lay out a programme of work which 
will remove the cause of the difficulty. He can test the 
ear of the man, to see whether the seat of the trouble is 
there. He can call the attention of the man to the fun- 
damental elements of conversation. He can open his 
eyes to the universal normal which men call natural ; to 
the inflections and forms of speech, wherein they vary 
with different people ; and wherein they are the same. 
The student himself has thus a normal, to which he can 
compare himself, and thus bring his need into conscious- 
ness; or the teacher may find an inflexible voice, proceed 
to work upon this, and develop its normal action. 

Do the methods of developing delivery unfolded in this 
book furnish a basis for true criticism, and not for mere 
fault-finding ? The whole problem opens before the 
mind, the whole process; the faithful teacher will ever 
consider the cause, the means and the effect, in expres- 
sion. Not merely regard one phase of the problem but 
will consider all from a central fundamental standpoint. 
Criticism upon delivery tends to be taken up merely with 
the outside, merely with the effect ; but it is not true 
criticism till it can indicate causes and more adequate 
use of the proper means. 

But he must go deeper still, for the one-sided voice may- 
be caused by a one-sided mind. The consciousness of the 
man must be awakened not by instruction, not by words, 
but by being set to work upon great examples of litera- 
ture, by struggles to express the deeper passions, so that 
he can feel the difference between the expression of con- 
trolled emotion and the expression of uncontrolled feeling. 
Thus the speaker will awake to the fact that his thought 



Criticism. 285 

and emotion have not been balanced by will. He can be 
made to see the cause of his defects. He can be shown, 
also, that he has not received an impression from the 
successive ideas passing through the mind, and that the 
emotion he delivers is only a general ecstatic condition 
rather than definite feeling caused by the picture in his 
mind at the time of speaking. 

Mere random work with a teacher who has no con- 
ception of the fundamental causes of faults often acci- 
dentally does good. But too often the student is made 
self-conscious and mechanical ; his real power is fettered 
or new faults are introduced. The only safe and ade- 
quate method is training directed to specific causes. 

Thus criticism, like all true art, is only suggestive. It 
can never be fully communicated in words, especially in 
so subjective and subtle a work as the development of 
delivery. The teacher must "do the thing," or rather 
cause the student to "do the thing shall breed the 
thought." 

Especially is this true of expression, for abuses and bad 
habits in the use of the voice are more unconscious than 
any other kind of abnormal action. Hence the necessity 
of a carefully arranged programme of steps, beginning 
with that which is most fundamental on the one hand, 
and on the other, with that in which the student is most 
normal ; and thus the student is set to work until he 
works out in his own consciousness a conception of his 
needs. Every true teacher of delivery, after having tried 
to explain to the student, and after having thought that 
the student understood his need, has been surprised after 
some weeks to hear the student come and express the 
same thing back to him as if it were an original discovery 
on his part. It makes the teacher realize Browning's 
words that "the truth is within ourselves." It is the 



286 Search for Method. 

very nature of expression that a consciousness of it can 
only come through execution. The greatest minds on 
earth can never adequately explain to another the nature 
of delivery or the needs for its improvement. All that 
can be done is a suggestion of the place to begin to work, 
and the teacher and the pupil working side by side, a con- 
sciousness of the need is thus formed. 

There must also as a rule, be work in contact with the 
greatest literature. A low class of literature nearly 
always demands abnormal modulations of the voice, and 
tends to degrade the student rather than elevate him. A 
low order of literature, therefore, rarely shows a man his 
faults, especially in public speaking, while occasionally 
something ridiculous or farcical aids in the discovery of 
affectation and stiltedness, yet there must not be too 
much practice upon these, as a corresponding fault will 
be acquired. 

In many of our schools and colleges the students elect 
literature that they may have something easy, but it 
should be the hardest of all studies. The student who 
has not been called upon to give expression to that which 
was in a sense beyond him, or has not struggled with its 
greatness, has not almost, if not actually, wept over his 
inadequacy to manifest the vaguely-conceived grandeur, 
has never realized the power of literature to develop the 
human soul itself as well as the power of expression. 

The great teacher's words are ever few ; while his 
insight must be deep, deeper than that of the student 
into needs and possibilities ; yet his aim is to stir the 
energies of the man that these may be awakened and all 
faults thrown off from the energy within. If every 
imperfect leaf and limb should be taken from any tree, 
however great and beautiful, nothing would be left but a 
trunk; and so, if from some artificial standard every 



Criticism. 287 

specific imperfection by a species of fault-finding, be torn 
from delivery, all power would be gone. A machine 
would take the place of a living man. The greatest of 
all mistakes is to apply a mechanical standard to a living 
organism. True criticism has to do with the depth and 
not merely with the surface. It has to do with the root, 
and only with the leaves through the internal life of the 
tree. It must ever be profound and severe ; must ever 
be frank and honest ; but never can be anything more 
than suggestive, and while external pruning is sometimes 
necessary, yet criticism must ever be dependent upon and 
measured by the energy and power it awakens in the 
depths of the soul. 

From our study of the problem of expression and the 
principles of nature, we have found that expression as a 
sequence and co-ordination of organic or natural actions, 
must be developed according to the laws of growth from 
within out, from center to surface and in all directions. 
The whole being must be made to act in greater unity, 
and this not by external manipulation, but by some kind 
of stimulation of the central impulses. The human being 
we find to be more complex than any other object in 
nature. We find that conscious and unconscious, volun- 
tary and involuntary elements are always present in any 
true natural act of expression, however real and simple. 
That spontaneity in art has ever resulted from a simul- 
taneous growth in the unconscious or involuntary proc- 
esses of the human soul, as well as in the conscious and 
the voluntary, and also in their power to act without inter- 
fering with each other. Hence the ordinary method in 
striving to make every thing conscious or to deal with 
the conscious and voluntary only, is one-sided and causes 
artificiality and unnaturalness. 



288 Search for Method. 

Hence, to improve expression so as to fulfill all the 
conditions of the problem we must first stimulate the 
cause, secure proper action and conditions of the organic 
agents, and lastly there must be skill in execution. All 
of these are mutually necessary. Other arts have more 
to do with this skill or the technical work because execu- 
tion is by a mechanical instrument, but expression is 
entirely dependent upon organic agents and the execution 
of actions natural to them. 

As a locomotive requires an engine properly adjusted, 
with fuel and fire and steam, and a track constructed to 
suit the engine, and lastly, knowledge of the levers and 
stops that control the movements, and skill in their use, 
so in expression the soul must be properly roused, the 
voice and body adequately trained and subordinated, and 
lastly, knowledge of art and human nature must be 
acquired and skill to execute the simple fundamental 
actions necessary to reveal the subjective conditions. 
Unless the elemental actions of the mind are developed, 
and unless the voice and body are properly trained, the 
unconscious and involuntary actions of the soul in expres- 
sion will not be secured. When all work is upon mere 
technique, attention is perverted and consciousness ren- 
dered abnormal, until even the laws of thinking are vio- 
lated. Hence speakers often become unable to speak 
extemporaneously. They must either memorize words 
and even actions, and give you mere signs, or merely read 
with motion or modulation. All is made mechanical. 

Studying all these forms of training together prevents 
any one of them from becoming exaggerated. All sides 
receiving attention, the whole man is developed, and 
growth is normal from a mystic center and in all direc- 
tions. As expression is subjective and mystic, it is very 
difficult for a man to realize his imperfections; hence 



Criticism, 2 89 

another must mirror to him, must suggest in some way 
to the man more clearly his own possibilities and ideals. 
This is one of the most difficult functions that criticism 
has to perform. It calls for the greatest care. There 
must be insight into the ideals and needs of another. 
There must be sympathetic inspiration and stimulation of 
neglected impulses, an appeal to higher ideals, and an 
understanding of all kinds of hindrances and an applica- 
tion of remedies suited to each case. 

All this is a mere outline of general principles which 
characterize true methods for the development of delivery. 
The specific study of particulars and the far-reaching 
character and effect of such a method must be left to 
future investigations. 



III. 
$rabifion. 

** Man was made to grow, not stop ; 
That help he needed once, and needs no more, 
Having grown up but an inch by, is withdrawn ; 
For he hath new needs, and new helps to these, 
This imports solely, man should mount on each 
New height in view ; the help whereby he mounts, 
The ladder-rung his foot has left may fall, 
Since all things suffer change, save God the truth. 
Man apprehends Him newly at each stage 
Whereat earth's ladder drops, its service done ; 
And nothing shall prove twice what once was proved." 

— Browning. 



XVI. 
THE AID OF HISTORY. 

" Man must pass from old to new, 
From vain to real, from mistake to fact, 
From-nvhat once seemed good to what now seems best; 
How could man have progression otherwise? " 

Thus far we have studied face to face with nature 
some of the aspects of histrionic expression. We have 
sought especially for hints from nature as to proper modes 
of developing expression. It has been the endeavor to 
look directly into nature, as free as possible from all 
shackles of tradition and conventional views. 

Everything human has a history. In the pursuit of 
any subject, while nothing must come between the mind 
and nature at the time of investigation, yet after new 
results are obtained, comparison with results obtained in 
the past, is one of the safest tests of truth. Without 
such a comparison there is a continual tendency to run 
off on a tangent, and to live over again the errors which 
were exploded centuries ago. 

There is a tendency, of course, in a historic method, 
to become too conservative — to regard the past too 
highly. The superficial student of history, who has 
merely aggregated facts, fears every new discovery and 
advance as a departure from truth. But in a right study 
of history there is the greatest inspiration to progress ; 
for the mind becomes imbued with the tendency to 
advance, which underlies all history from age to age, and 
hence is not retarded but is rather impelled forward to 
higher views. The student is made not only more sen- 
sitive to errors, more alive to all evil tendencies, but also 
more confident of every step he takes, in advance. 



294 Tradition. 

Hence, this work will seem incomplete, if not entirely- 
uncalled for, unless we review in outline the struggles 
over this problem in the past. So, having now arrived at 
certain conclusions from an unfettered study of nature, 
let us return to a study of the leading aspects of expres- 
sion in the past, and test whether what we have found is 
progressive' or retrogressive. While even in stage art, 
which is very apt to be governed by tradition, the great- 
est merit of the greatest actors has been the breaking 
away from tradition ; yet even these, who have advanced 
their art by a closer study of nature, among the foremost 
of whom may be mentioned Mr. Henry Irving, have been 
themselves most studious of tradition. 

The general plan of investigation in this work has been 
to follow the method which has been most successful in 
the advance of every department of art. Art, wherever 
it has gone astray, has done so from a slavish following 
of tradition, and has always been reformed by fresh, 
direct study of nature. In fact, the fetters of convention- 
ality have ever been forged by the misuse of tradition, 
and substitution of authority and example for a direct 
study of nature. The great use of history is to furnish a 
light to tell whether we are in her stream of tendency 
that is ever advancing, or whether we are turning aside 
into some current that leads us back to methods which 
have long since been thrown aside as hindrances. 

A right study of history serves to impress us more 
strongly with the necessity of a direct study of nature. 
It shows us that all the great failures in the study of art 
have been endeavors to reproduce the effects of some 
great masters, to elevate accidental remarks into binding 
rules ; or, from a failure to keep in direct sympathy with 
nature and to follow her methods, in some way to become 
narrow and one-sided. Tradition teaches indirectly more 



The Aid of History. 295 

than it does directly. It shows us how others have 
followed nature, and how they have failed, and the cause 
of such failure. In fact, history itself must be studied 
face to face with nature. The problem must be grasped 
before history is intelligible. Nature is before our eyes 
as it was before the eyes of the greatest master. If we 
study the great master without studying nature, we miss 
his lesson, as we are apt to look merely at the outside of 
his work and accept his word as absolute authority. But 
after we have studied the great problem which he studied 
as well as his interpretation of it, then we are far less 
liable to make mistakes. Nay, more, then only can we 
read his lesson. Even Shakespeare's plays, the greatest 
studies of nature, can never furnish a substitute for the 
study of nature herself. In fact, the greatness of Shakes- 
peare can never be appreciated unless there is a direct 
comparison of all his work with human nature. 

One of the greatest needs of elocution is a careful 
investigation of its history, but no such work has ever 
been written. Many of the aids to other departments of 
art are not so applicable to expression, but in methods of 
development at least, a study of the methods of the past 
would save men from repeating again and again, age after 
age, the same errors. While during the last hundred and 
fifty years, well-defined stages of development can be 
seen, yet to-day, as we look over the condition of elocu- 
tion, we find that nearly every one of the methods dis- 
carded a hundred years ago is still practiced. This, it 
seems, could not be, if there were any careful, funda- 
mental study of the history of methods. 

One little book, "A Plea for Spoken Language," has 
discussed some of the topics connected with the history 
of elocution, but it is professedly a plea for Rush and the 
mechanical methods of his system. Besides, there are a 



296 Tradition. 

great many mistakes. For example, Walker is put down 
as the discoverer of inflection, and Joshua Steele as the 
one who proved it by further investigation ; while the fact 
is, that Joshua Steele's book was published in 1775, while 
Walker's book was not published until five or six years 
later. The author also discusses Walker before Sheri- 
dan, although Sheridan's first book was published in 
1759, about twenty years before Walker's work. There 
are, however, many valuable suggestions in Mr. Mur- 
doch's book, but it does not profess to be a history. 

The subject is, in fact, extremely difficult for many 
reasons. First of all, because the art is a completely 
passing one. What Demosthenes said, we have, or at 
least enough of it to show his style ; but how he spoke it, 
the modulations of his voice, his action, his whole manner 
of delivery, are lost. We have the plays of the great 
dramatists, but we have little or no adequate means of 
knowing the methods of the actors who " created" the 
parts. All dramatic art is a mirror held up to nature "to 
show the very age and body of the time, its form and 
pressure," but modes of rendering this form and pressure, 
though they leave so strong an effect upon the world, 
themselves pass entirely away. 

No adequate means have ever been discovered for 
recording the methods of actors. Many great hopes have 
been awakened since the wonderful invention or discovery 
of the phonograph, but while one is able to recognize Mr. 
Gladstone's voice, for instance, yet much of the color of 
his tone is lost, and the general action and manner of the 
man, of course, are entirely absent. So, while the phono- 
graph will do much, at most, it will never be able to 
record anything but the vocal expression. 

If there is great difficulty in recording the effects and 
modes of expression, the difficulty of recording the meth- 



The Aid of History. 297 

ods of developing delivery is far greater. Many of the 
most illustrious teachers have concealed their methods. 
Nearly every instructor has some special principle or 
truth, some peculiar set of exercises, which he uses for 
the accomplishment of his end, yet these he keeps to 
himself. There is little or no opportunity of comparing 
them with the work of other teachers, and with their 
.author they nearly always die. 

Again, as has been shown, the work of developing 
expression is so subjective and intuitive that the teacher 
himself rarely conveys clearly the methods by which he 
accomplishes his results. The spirit of criticism — the 
spirit by which the great teacher helps his pupil — is 
almost clairvoyant in character. Such an instructor has 
no rules about the most important parts of his teaching. 
The statement of his modes and principles of work is 
even more difficult than the statement of the principles 
of poetry or the fundamental methods of the great artists 
in any department. 

The history of expression may be considered from 
many points of view. It is as has been proved, most 
intimately associated with all forms of art, hence every 
period and change in the history of art is shown in 
expression. Thus among our readers we have also the 
various schools of art. The idealist and the realist are 
as clearly seen in this form of art as anywhere. But in 
the present work the only point to bring out is the various 
methods of teaching delivery, not the history of the vari- 
ous forms of the art. 

It was the intention, when this work was first under- 
taken, to bring out a short history of the methods of 
developing delivery, but the material became so great 
that this was found impossible. Besides, there are yet 
great gaps which the writer has been unable to bridge 



298 Tradition. 

satisfactorily. Before that phase of the work is published, 
many years of investigation will be required. 

Hence, there will be no endeavor to trace the history 
of elocutionary methods at present. It will not be pos- 
sible to touch the work of individual teachers. All that 
will be undertaken is an outline of the leading methods 
which have been followed for the past hundred years, and 
which are still being followed at the present time. Such 
an outline is very unsatisfactory, but the lesson is so 
important that it must be undertaken although the treat- 
ment may be inadequate. 

It must be granted that men do not see things alike. 
In every department of art, there have always been differ- 
ent schools. Hence, there must be different schools of 
elocution. There are no rules in such a great art. 
Every great method must be founded upon Nature her- 
self, and must be consistent, also, with the personality of 
the man who applies it. The work, too, is many-sided. 
One man will see it from one point of view, and another 
from mother. To one man every need centers in articu- 
lation ; to another, every need centers in the voice ; to 
another, every need centers in pantomime. One man will 
have strong impulses in his heart, and will naturally trust 
them more in teaching ; while another will have little 
spontaneity, will do everything deliberately, and endeavor 
to bring all into consciousness. One teacher will be apt 
to look at his own execution, which has received the 
approval of the world, and will show a pupil how he him- 
self does a thing to make it effective. He is especially 
liable to do this if he has worked long, and has come to 
be a master of expression in his own voice and body. 
His whole nature has become concentrated in his own 
modes of execution, and when he comes to teach others, he 
gauges all by the methods evolved in his own experience. 



The Aid of History. 299 

Again, another teacher will have a very correct ear. 
This may have been so cultivated that every shade of 
inflection and melody is clearly revealed to his mind. 
He has worked hard upon the subtleties of mechanism, 
peculiar kinds of inflection and stress, and the years of 
attention devoted to these unconsciously cause him to 
lift them to the very highest place in the development of 
delivery. He arranges rules from his mechanical analysis, 
and endeavors to bring his pupils to the standard of the 
special action of his own mechanism. Again, another 
may discover the weakness of such a method, and will 
fall back upon the mere unguided impulses of his nature. 
This to him is natural. He sees the impossibility of con- 
forming to an artificial standard without developing self- 
consciousness and weakness, so he throws overboard 
every standard, and says that it is only thought, however 
it may be given, that moulds men. Still another may 
pass out into the realm of philosophy and even theology, 
and secure an artificial standard like a trinity, and trace it 
through the whole universe and apply it to the different 
aspects of delivery. 

Hence, there will ever be different schools. We must 
recognize that there are more ways than one of doing 
every thing. Schools of art are more or less of an 
advantage, as they inspire a broader study of the subject. 
Even a method which sometimes seems wholly wrong 
may bring forth results which are not absolutely bad. 
The reason for this is that the methods for developing 
the art may be worse than the results. A reader, for 
example, may read better than the methods by which he 
was taught seem to warrant. The student, in studying a 
subject, receives inspiration, and may lay aside or disobey 
the teaching. His impulses may be followed, and the 
rule that is given may be disobeyed. The personality of 



300 Tradition. 

the teacher, being greater than his beloved system, may 
awaken inspiration in the heart of the pupil that will 
break the shackles of a narrow system that would other- 
wise bind him down to artificiality. Some have gone so 
far as to say that the method makes very little difference. 
If a teacher will only set his pupil to work, no matter 
how bad the methods, good will result. 

There is an element of truth in all this. Yet, where 
one student has worked himself free by the inspiration of 
his own heart and instincts from the effect of bad meth- 
ods and has risen to success, vast numbers, whose voices 
are never heard, have been injured, and their natural 
power destroyed. 

The same is true in all great art. The idealist and the 
realist arise from what men conceive nature to be and 
what she is capable of becoming. Still, as men pass to 
too great an extreme in either direction, they pass out of 
the realm of art ; the realist into the realm of mere facts, 
the idealist into vague dreams. 

Hence, while we must ever be free to study all meth- 
ods and to find the good in them, we must remember that 
here, as everywhere, there is a standard of truthfulness 
which, while it is free to develop various types, possesses 
certain fundamental conditions which are ever absolute 
and unchangeable. 

The division here followed must, of course, be consid- 
ered as the opinion of only one, and must not be taken 
as absolutely complete. Some one must begin, however, 
and so this attempt is ventured. There will be an 
endeavor to be perfectly fair, though this will be difficult, 
as many teachers combine two or three of the methods 
here presented. Every one of the schools has been stud- 
ied, not merely from books, but personally, as the writer 
has been a pupil of teachers of every one of these methods. 



XVII. 
THE IMITATIVE SCHOOL. 

Imitation is suicide. — Emerson. 

Of all the methods for the development of delivery, 
possibly the oldest is the imitative. Many in every age 
have practiced this method; but the teachers who have 
practically followed it while not theoretically believing in 
it, are still more numerous. Even mechanical teachers 
like Walker and even Sheridan, bewail the fact that they 
have to adopt imitation. Their method was in violation 
of their own principles, as they themselves confessed. 

Those who believe in this method quote from Aristotle, 
and contend that all art is founded upon imitation, or at 
least, must begin in imitation. The writer must begin, 
they say, by imitating some writer before him. Even 
Shakespeare began by imitating Marlowe. 

Another argument is, that in a mystic art like delivery, 
where so much is subjective, the only way to get at the 
subject, they say, is by imitation. All art requires 
example, and in delivery the only way is for one man to 
speak a sentence by way of example, and to have the 
pupil follow by imitation. The art is too subtle for analy- 
sis, hence there is no way to improve it except by direct 
or indirect imitation. By direct imitation the pupil is 
made to do exactly as the teacher does. By indirect 
imitation the teacher chiefly imitates the faults of the 
pupil, imitating and showing what the pupil is to avoid. 

Of course it cannot be denied that there are elements 
of truth in all these arguments. To a certain extent, 
every great teacher must give illustrations directly 



302 Tradition. 

through his own voice. A teacher of any method must 
often illustrate two or three modes of execution to 
quicken the insight of students into what is true or false 
to nature ; into what suggests weakness or strength. 

Another argument for the adoption of this method is 
the fact, that since methods for the development of deliv- 
ery can never be given in writing, the traditions regarding 
the art must ever be of fundamental importance. Hence, 
a most popular method, especially in studying for the 
stage, is to give to students the traditions of how leading 
actors and artists spoke, and have them execute these by 
imitation. 

This method is the one followed at the illustrious 
School of Declamation for the training of actors in Paris. 
I have made two journeys for the careful investigation of 
the methods of this school. My first visit was in the 
spring of 1880, and my second in the spring of 1882. 
My knowledge of it came through M. Regnier, who for 
forty years was the leading actor in the Comedie Fran- 
qais, and director and teacher in this school, and who 
was, unless we except Samson, the greatest teacher 
that has ever taught in the Conservatoir. M. Regnier 
kindly answered all my questions, and gave me permission 
to visit the classes. He spent several hours explaining 
carefully to me, and answering all my inquiries. The 
school is under the direction of the leading actors of 
France, so that the students receive inspiration from 
personal contact with the greatest masters of histrionic 
expression. In a school supported by the state, and hav- 
ing such teachers, where only about twenty students each 
year are chosen from over two hundred applicants, even 
with bad methods, wonderful results ought to follow. 

But, when I visited the school the second time, I found 
some of the same students still working in the class- 



The Imitative School. 303 

room. There is simply an endeavor to learn and to copy 
what the old actors did. Students are sent to the dic- 
tionary for a study of faults of speech, but there is little 
or no training of the kind this book seeks to advocate. 
There is little study, if any, into the action of the mind in 
speaking, little study into the fundamental elements of 
faults and needs, little direct study and development of 
the voice, so that all students with imperfections in the 
voice, are simply sent away, and only students who are in 
a normal condition are set at work on what amounts to 
little more than dramatic rehearsal. 

The school, when it was in the hands of great teachers 
like Samson and Regnier, produced great results, but, in 
the hands of weaker men, it is becoming conventional. 
Everything tends to the mechanical and artificial. There 
is one occasionally who rises above the methods, and 
develops himself or herself according to the laws of his 
own being. Even at the Theatre Francais, where for 
over a hundred years the greatest actors of the world 
have been found, since Regnier, Got and Delauney have 
retired or passed away, with Coquelin soon to follow, 
there seem to be none rising to take their places. 

Thus has it ever been with imitation in art. Giulio 
Romano and all the imitators of Raphael became abso- 
lutely insipid. Imitation is ever a synonym for weakness 
in art. The severest criticism that can ever be made 
upon any artist is a charge of imitation. 

The reasons for this are very plain. Every personality 
is different. To develop a man so as to be powerful in 
expression, we must develop the fundamental elements of 
his nature, preserve and train his own personality. Imi- 
tation of another always dwarfs personality, can never 
penetrate into the fundamental depths of a soul, but is 
ever a copy of outside characteristics. Faults and pecul- 



304 Tradition. 

iarities can be imitated, but not excellences. Thus, to 
develop delivery by imitation is to be taken up with 
externalities which are ever furthest from the soul of the 
man. 

Besides, imitation is a direct violation of the law of 
nature, which we have found to demand that all expres- 
sion must be from within out. Everything in nature is 
original. No leaf is an imitation of any other leaf ; it is 
the expression and embodiment of its, own life, impulses 
and material. Everything that has life must be evolved 
from within. Mechanical art can easily make things 
alike. Two bricks cast in the same mould can hardly be 
distinguished from each other. But every leaf must 
depend upon its parent stem and upon its own power and 
opportunity to assimilate soil and moisture, light and 
heat. If this is true of the lowest forms of life, 'how 
much more must it be true of the highest and most com- 
plex. Imitation is an external aggregation of qualities, 
a manipulation of external parts for external likeness, 
hence it can never touch the deep and fundamental ele- 
ments which are to be revealed in human life. It is 
essentially a violation of the great law of growth. 

Many mistake the dramatic instinct of children for imi- 
tation. The child simply endeavors under the quicken- 
ing power of imagination, to enter into sympathy with 
all life around him. He who carefully watches children, 
will find them original. They assimilate more than they 
imitate. They transform objective things to suit their 
own original conceptions. The plays of children who are 
left alone are nearly always inventions of their own. At 
times, children are quick to imitate, but they always 
mimic the mere accidental and odd characteristics of 
peculiar people, animals or objects. Their mimicry is 
concerned with accidentals, as imitation always is. It is 



The Imitative School. 305 

only one aspect of Dramatic Instinct, not its highest 
form. It is an endeavor of the child to get outside of 
itself, but is more the evolution of the eye than of the 
mind — the province of understanding objective things, 
not of true art. 

Mr. Ruskin has said regarding art: "These ideas and 
pleasures" — those received from imitation — "are the 
most contemptible which can be received from art ; 
first, because it is necessary to their enjoyment that the 
mind should reject the impression and address of the 
thing represented, and fix itself only upon the reflection 
that it is not what it seems to be. All high or noble 
emotion or thought is thus rendered physically impossi- 
ble, while the mind exults in what is very like a strictly 
sensual pleasure. We may consider tears as a result of 
agony or of art, whichever we please, but not of both at 
the same moment. If we are surprised by them as an 
attainment of the one, it is impossible we can be moved 
by them as a sign of the other. Ideas of imitation are 
contemptible in the second place, because not only 
do they preclude the spectator from enjoying inherent 
beauty in the subject, but they can only be received from 
mean and paltry subjects, because it is impossible to imi- 
tate anything really great. We can ' paint a cat or a fid- 
dle, so that they look as if we could take them up' ; but 
we can not imitate the ocean, or the Alps. We can imi- 
tate fruit, but not a tree ; flowers, but not a pasture ; cut 
glass, but not the rainbow. All pictures in which decep- 
tive powers of imitation are displayed, are therefore 
either of contemptible subjects, or have the imitation 
shown in contemptible parts of them, bits of dress, jew- 
els, furniture, etc. Thirdly, these ideas are contemptible, 
because no ideas of power are associated with them ; to 
the ignorant, imitation indeed seems difficult, and its sue- 



306 Tradition. 

cess praiseworthy, but even they can by no possibility see 
more in the artist than they do in the juggler, who 
arrives at a strange end by means with which they are 
unacquainted. To the instructed, the juggler is by far 
the more respectable artist of the two, for they know 
sleight of hand to be an art of immensely more difficult 
acquirement, and to imply more ingenuity in the artist 
than a power of deceptive imitation in painting, which 
requires nothing more for its attainment than a true eye, 
a steady hand and moderate industry — qualities which 
in no degree separate the imitative artist from a watch- 
maker, pin-maker or any other neat-handed artificer." 

It is true Ruskin says that the Diorama and the stage 
are exceptions to the rule, because they are arts which 
are founded primarily on imitation, but if the principles 
unfolded in this book are true, the highest principles of 
art apply to histrionic expression with as much force as 
they do to painting or sculpture. It is true that much 
of the ordinary stage representation is imitative in char- 
acter, and, as Mr. Ruskin says, the pleasure and emo- 
tions derived from it are much lower than that derived 
from other arts ; but this statement is not true of all 
stage art. While much of the very lowest art is found 
upon the stage, there is also occasionally some of the 
very highest art found there. Dixey's caricature of Mr. 
Irving belongs to the low realm of imitation ; but Mr. 
Irving' s Louis XI is no more imitation than Raphael's 
Sistine Madonna. It is the result of a creative concep- 
tion, of long and careful study and imaginative insight. 

If imitation does not apply to any but the very lowest 
forms of the art, still less can it apply to methods of 
teaching the art. Such a method of teaching alienates 
histrionic expression from all true art, and deprives it of 
the inspiration of its noble principles. 



The Imitative School. 307 

But some one will say that the teacher of elocution 
only begins by a process of imitation, and expects a stu- 
dent to grow out of and away from imitation. But this 
is not the way even to begin to develop expression, 
because the action of the mind in imitation is altogether 
different from the action of the mind in creating. Nei- 
ther the imagination nor any noble faculty of the mind is 
awakened ; the soul has no conception of the situation ; 
all is taken up with the senses and objective things. If 
no noble emotion is awakened by a contemplation of imi- 
tation, much more does no noble emotion stir the soul of 
one in the act of imitation. This is the chief objection 
to imitation, that it makes all expression a mere matter 
of physical execution, independent of the action of the 
mind. 

There are many other arguments against it. There 
are no two voices pitched exactly alike. For a teacher 
with a low voice to teach by imitation a pupil with a high 
voice, has often constricted and almost ruined the stu- 
dent's voice. Or for a teacher with a very high voice, to 
make a pupil with a low voice imitate him, can only cause 
labored action in the throat, limitation of the resonance 
of the voice, and a perversion of all true expression. The 
teacher and student may both be completely unconscious 
of the difference in their voices. The writer speaks from 
personal experience with his own teachers of this school, 
and from observing many cases taught by illustrious 
teachers, who were practicing the method while speaking 
against it. The teacher would first give the pupil what 
he would call an example, and the student would, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, immediately endeavor to pro- 
duce the same effects, and would naturally take on the 
key and endeavor' to assume certain modulations, nearly 
always, of course, with discouragement, because of an 



308 Tradition. 

endeavor to artificially aggregate the effects of the 
actions of another voice or body or mind, often con- 
sciously foreign to his own conceptions. 

Such a method is in absolute violation of the methods 
of nature, which demand that expression shall be every 
man's own, that the energies of the soul must be aroused 
as the direct cause of all the actions of the body. Thus 
we can see at once that a method by imitation violates 
the fundamental nature of expression. 

Again, the temperaments of men are different. The 
teacher may naturally read very slowly, and it may be the 
pupil's nature to read rapidly. A teacher may have a 
nervous temperament, and would evidently move and 
speak quickly if he should act in accordance with his own 
temperament, while for one of an entirely opposite tend- 
ency or temperament to read the same way, would be to 
violate every principle of nature. The first requisite of 
all expression must ever be for a man to be himself. His 
own instincts must be trusted. No man has ever become 
an orator or an artist of any kind who has not done so. 
Any method of education which does not develop a man's 
instincts, character and personality, is absolutely false to 
all true methods of education. 

Again, if we look at the results of such a method, we 
find that those who have been taught in this way have 
little or no confidence in themselves. When they have a 
new selection or part to study, they must in every case, 
be coached. There is little originality, little trust in any 
thing that is not directly copied. Besides, another result 
of imitation is to make everybody alike. Instead of the 
spontaneity and vigor and originality of nature, sooner or 
later a narrow conventionality is acquired. 

Mere imitation in education can never be in accord- 
ance with nature's method. It fixes the mind upon the 



The Imitative School. 309 

outside, not upon the center. It represses the noble 
impulses and ideals of the soul. Each character is not 
developed along the lines of nature's intention, but is 
more or less warped to become like some other. 

There is no need of further discussing the evils of such 
a method, for they have long been recognized. Professor 
Alexander Melville Bell, in the preface to his Principles of 
Elocution, has shown the failure of such methods. "The 
principle of instruction to which Elocution owes its mean- 
ness of reputation may be expressed in one word — Imi- 
tation. The teacher presents his pupils with a model or 
specimen of reading or declamation, and calls on them to 
stand forth and do likewise. The model may be good, 
bad or indifferent ; it is at all events tinged with the 
teacher's own peculiarities, and the pupils in their imita- 
tive essays, can hardly be expected to distinguish between 
these accidents of style, and the essentials of good deliv- 
ery which may be embodied in the model. Thus, becom- 
ing accustomed to imitate the former, they naturally 
confound them with the latter. Each pupil, too, has his 
own peculiarities, already more or less developed — aris- 
ing from structural differences in the organs of speech, 
from temperament, or from habit — the result of previous 
training or of previous neglect. These fixed idiosyncra- 
sies and tendencies, mingled with the imitated peculiari- 
ties, form a compound style which, whatever its qualities, 
can hardly fail to be unnatural. Besides, as imitation is 
in a great degree an unconscious act, habits are thus 
formed of the existence of which the subject of them is 
entirely ignorant. In no other way can we account for 
those monstrous perversions of style which are so com- 
mon, and so patent to all but, apparently, the speakers 
themselves." 



XVIII. 
THE MECHANICAL SCHOOL. 

A man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
Or what's a Heaven for? All is silver-gray, 
Placid and perfect with my art — the worse. 
— Browning. 

It will be impossible here to give anything more than 
a mere outline of the many methods which may be 
summarized under the general term " mechanical". The 
name applies to the great majority of the methods now in 
use. This section might be appropriately headed " Elo- 
cutionary Methods ". The general characteristic of almost 
every mechanical or elocutionary method is to proceed 
from analysis of the mechanism of speech — from the 
nature of the modulations of the voice, such as inflection 
or stress, or the like, and to lay down rules for the proper 
rendering of thought and passion. 

These methods arose chiefly from a realization, on the 
part of the best teachers, of the inadequacy of methods of 
imitation. Sheridan and Walker, whose methods are the 
earliest recorded in English elocution of any note, while 
they practically taught by imitation, each earnestly 
sought for a method which would be independent of 
imitation, and would more adequately meet the needs of 
delivery. So far as we are able to judge, Sheridan first 
began the struggle for such a method. His first book, 
published in 1759, in which he merely discusses general 
principles, is the best. The second, about fifteen years 
later, shows a departure in a more artificial direction. 
He entirely misconceived the nature of inflection, and so 
his work is confined to arranging a lot of rules for pauses 
and punctuation. He bewailed the fact that we have not, 



The Mechanical School. 311 

in English, a uniform method of accentuation with marks 
printed as a part of the language as clearly denned and 
as unchangeable as words. He contended that the glory 
of the Greek language was in its accents, entirely over- 
looking the fact that these accents were added in the 
Grammarian's Period — a period which marks the decline 
of Greek literature. 

Sheridan and Walker are not literally followed by any 
one at the present time, so their methods belong to the 
history of elocution and not to the present survey. 

About 1805, Austin published his "Chironomia," a 
book on gesture, which has had great influence on what 
might be called the Declamatory School or Gesture 
School. The whole method is one of aggregation ; little 
attention is paid to the expression of the face or body, 
but nearly the whole book is devoted to the arms. Little 
or no attention was given positions and attitudes, the 
most fundamental and important part of Pantomime, but 
all was made to center in motions or gestures. As has 
been shown, it was an endeavor to transplant the Greek 
and Roman methods upon English soil. The whole 
work is in the spirit of Greek and Roman art rather than 
Christian ; hence nearly all expression is confined to the 
limbs. If one were to deliver one of the passages analyzed 
and illustrated as marked, "The Miser," for example, and 
then deliver it according to the simpler methods of the 
best work of the present time, the contrast would be won- 
derful. As Sheridan and Walker had bewailed the need 
of mechanical marks, and had endeavored to arrange 
them for vocal expression so as to furnish, so to speak, 
a score like music, so Austin prided himself upon, having 
discovered a system for the notation of gesture ; what to 
move, and when to move, being indicated by letters. It 
is astonishing how long such a mechanical and artificial 



3 1 2 Tradition. 

system has lived. The evils of his work are still found 
in school exhibitions when boys are seen to give wide, 
swinging gestures with full arm but without a particle of 
facial expression, even in the rendering of the most subtle 
poems. 

Mechanical elocution was carried further, or as some 
of the leading advocates of the mechanical method con- 
tend, to the highest possible perfection, by Dr. James 
Rush, whose "Philosophy of the Human Voice" was 
published in 1828. He analyzed inflection into a radical 
element and a " vanish", and showed the meaning of the 
length of inflection. Another element which is probably 
the most fundamental of his system, is his idea of stress. 
He imagines that every passion has a particular stress, 
and divides these into radical, medium, intermittent, com- 
pound and the like. Walker had said respecting the 
expression of feeling, that "The tones of the passions or 
emotions mean only that quality of sound that indicates 
the feelings of the speaker, without any reference to the 
pitch or loudness of his voice ; and it is in being easily 
susceptible of every passion and emotion that presents 
itself, and being able to express them with that peculiar 
quality of sound which belongs to them, that the great 
art of reading and speaking consists." But Rush con- 
tended that the qualities of the voice, as well as the 
stresses and inflections, could be so regulated by rule, 
that the expression of every passion could be indicated 
definitely, and even printed as a score like music. 

Rush divided all qualities into orotund, pure tone, 
aspirate quality and the tremor. Sorrow is expressed 
with aspirate quality, joy with pure quality, noble emo- 
tion in what he calls "an artificial and improved quality" 
. — the orotund. Grief is given with tremor. This 
system contends further, that each feeling and passion 



The Mechanical School. 3 1 3 

is to be rendered by inflection of a given length, stress of 
a given character, as well as by tones of a special quality. 
The teachers who have followed Rush have laid down 
rules for the use of all these. Here is an example 
literally copied from a lesson given by a teacher: 
"Sorrow: to be rendered by low pitch, long quantity, 
aspirate quality and slow time. Joy: rendered by high 
pitch, short quantity, pure tone and quick time," etc., etc. 
Any one in his senses who will observe nature, can see 
that sorrow is given in all pitches, and that joy is not 
confined to a high pitch. Such statements are prepos- 
terous, for these are mere accidental facts which are 
occasionally true, but so rarely true that to make them 
the rule is to superficialize and pervert nature, and, in 
fact, to become absolutely absurd. 

For fifty years our elocution has therefore been chiefly 
concerned with the acquirement of an artificial tone — 
called so by the teachers themselves, and claimed as an 
improvement upon natural tone — known as the orotund, 
with certain modifications, such as aspirate orotund, pure 
orotund, and the like. A vast number of selections have 
been marked ad nauseam, with the statement at the 
beginning of what tone they are to be read in, what kind 
of stress and what pitch, and even hew long the inflec- 
tions must be made. One of the most important 
questions asked students by the teachers of such a 
method is, "What tone should such and such a piece be 
read in ? " The highest power of elocutionists has been 
considered to be due to a knowledge of these "signs of 
emotion," and the ability to apply them with skill accord- 
ing to the nature of the extract. Lest this may seem 
exaggerated, let us open at random a book published in 
1880 by a professor in one of our leading colleges. 
Before an extract, this is the analysis : " Predominating 



3 14 Tradition. 

time, slow; pitch, low; force, moderate, effusive and 
expulsive ; stress, median, and in strong passages, ter- 
minal; quality, orotund." 

Mr. Murdoch is the best representative of this school, 
and as his work has been published within a very few 
years, and with the professed object of justifying Rush, 
it may be taken as the latest expression of the system. 
Only a few quotations will be selected at random. After 
showing the importance of mastering the tremors of 
various kinds, he says, "The semitonic tremor is heard 
in the following, where we apply this movement to the 
word all, although the other words, or accented syllables, 
of the entire quotation would be given with the tremor 
and semitone : 

" « Oh, I have lost you all ! 

Parents, and home, and friends.' " 

He also says that the passional outpouring of the soul 
of the son in Jean Ingelow's "High Tide," "Oh, come in 
life or come in death," etc., should be given with semi- 
tonic tremor. By reading it this way the great struggle 
of the man to bear up under his great sorrow, is entirely 
lost. All becomes a mere weak whine. There is no 
manliness, no intensity of passion, no control of breath, 
and above all, none of that subtle color or modulation of 
resonance which is the result of passional modulation of 
the texture of the muscles of the body. A mere artificial 
expedient is introduced as a substitute for nature, and not 
only so, but a substitute that entirely overlooks the 
writer's introductory words, "yet he moaned beneath his 
breath," and perverts the spirit breathed into the poem, 
substituting weakness for strength. The " agonized sup- 
plication " of Enoch Arden is another illustration : 

" Too hard to bear ; why did they take me thence ? 
O God almighty, blessed Saviour, Thou 
That didst uphold me on my lonely isle, 



The Mechanical School. 315 

Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness 

A little longer ; aid me, give me strength 

Not to tell her, never to let her know." 

This must be given with "aspirated quality, weeping 
utterance, waves and chromatic thirds and fifths." 

This system makes no distinction between normal and 
abnormal qualities of the voice. Whatever is found in 
nature is to be practiced and mastered, whether it be nor- 
mal or abnormal, strong or weak. Imagine Shakespeare's 
powerful, intense and dignified queen expressing her 
indignation and contempt by declaiming in "orotund 
quality and changing to a guttural", "Thou little valiant, 
great in villainy, hast thou not spoke like thunder on my 
side?" That the full force of this may be seen let us 
note what he means by this guttural: "The mechanism 
of the harsh quality of voice known as the guttural, or 
throaty voice, should be well considered and thoroughly 
understood. It is an element of speech of a strongly 
marked and expressive nature, partaking of the same kind 
though differing in degree, from that peculiar effect 
known as aspirated vocality. They both play a promi- 
nent part in the offices of spoken language, being insep- 
arable from its expressive functions ; and thus defects of 
voice produce effects. But, on the contrary, such quali- 
ties of voice are repugnant to the principles underlying 
the structure of song. Therefore, the guttural and aspi- 
rated voices should be familiar to the speaker and singer, 
in order that the former should use them as effective 
agents in his art, and the latter learn how to avoid them 
as damaging elements in singing. The one may be said 
to resemble the growl of a dog, while the other his 
snarl. The guttural is produced by a suffocation of 
the voice, which is crushed and squeezed, as it were, 
between the roots of the tongue and the. sides of the 



3 16 Tradition. 

pharynx. This action, when deep-seated, causes that 
grating or rubbing which is the marked characteristic of 
this quality. While the more aspirated, rasping, hiss- 
ing form of aspiration is produced by a lighter pressure 
of the same parts, and near approach to the soft palate or 
uvula." Think of Miss Terry, Mrs. Kendall, or any artist 
of the present time upon the stage applying such a sys- 
tem. With such suggestions it is no wonder that elo- 
cutionary study often causes sore throats. To master 
this guttural, a long list of individual words, such as 
"revenge" is laid down for the student to practice. 

Again, note the mechanical rules in inflection. " Come 
back, come back, Horatius," must be rendered "with a 
rising, discreet third." The sentence might be read in 
fifty different ways, but, of all, the one chosen seems to 
be the most foreign to the true situation. It could only 
be read so when a man is trying to carry out a "system," 
which is to him greater than nature. 

All these may be regarded as mere questions of taste, 
but not so ; they are the result of an endeavor to apply a 
system which is claimed to be better than nature herself. 
It seems wonderful that men, with all nature before them, 
with instincts stirring in their breasts, should endeavor to 
obey such mechanical rules ; above all, that they should 
endeavor to force such rules upon other men. It is 
inconceivable that nature should be so studied as to make 
no distinction between weakness and strength, that all 
attention should be given to mere accidents, which if 
made the rule, would destroy all variety, beauty and 
strength of expression. It is strange that such super- 
ficial facts should be elevated to the dignity of great 
principles which form "the most complete system ever 
offered to a student of elocution," a system which "must 
be accepted in its entirety," a system which is held up as 



The Mechanical School. 317 

the standard of all advance, a failure to accept which 
explains u why there has been, thus far, no uniform elocu- 
tionary development from a source which bears within 
itself all the essential elements for the accomplishment 
of that result, and why there is, as yet, no established 
artistic standard of excellence and taste in elocutionary 
study and execution, which would be the natural outcome 
of such development." 

The best teachers of singing have taught for years that 
all noble emotion should be rendered by pure tone. The 
Rush system entirely overlooks the subtle modulations 
of pure tone by emotion, which is the fundamental char- 
acteristic of the best expression. To render sorrow with 
an aspirate quality of voice is to degrade it. A strong 
character ever renders sorrow with a modulation and 
softening of pure tone, caused by the modulation of the 
texture of the muscles, by the diffusion of emotion. 
This is the method followed by all the best actors of our 
time. The Rush system has come to be known as elocu- 
tion and has made the name synonymous with the substi- 
tution of artificial tricks for nature. Such a system 
makes the whole art of expression a mere matter of 
mechanical stresses, waves, semitones and tremors, and 
a reading by this system is little more than an exhibition 
of mechanical actions, miscalled " signs of emotion." 

The greatest evil, however, of the whole system, is that 
it introduces mere rules, founded upon a mechanical 
mode of procedure. The whole action of the mind is 
focused upon the modes of execution by the voice, and 
not upon the successive ideas. There is thus a violation 
of the great law of nature which was formulated by 
Comenius, "from within, out." Such a method perverts 
the whole action of the soul. Instead of the mind being 
focused upon successive ideas and reproducing them, all 



3 1 8 Tradition. 

is centered upon the performance of successive signs. 
This, any one can see, is a violation of Pestalozzi's princi- 
ple- — "the thing, not its sign," and, in fact, of every 
principle of true education. Such a method violates the 
principles of nature, which were found in the second part 
of this work. What is meant to be unconscious by 
nature is made conscious. What is meant to be sponta- 
neous is made deliberative. What is merely accidental 
is placed for what is fundamental, and the fundamental 
is subordinated and forgotten. The whole mind is 
uncentered, unbalanced. Genuine, truthful emotion is 
impossible. Even natural thinking is not developed. A 
proof of the inadequacy of the method is found in the 
fact that it is condemned by all the best speakers and 
actors of our day. 

Such a course is not in accord with the action of the 
mind in conversation. If a man in conversation is ever 
conscious of the inflections, stresses and above all, of the 
color of his voice, it is in a very secondary way, and 
is generally caused by ill-health or some misuse of the 
mechanism. Normally the mind must ever be centered 
upon its train of ideas, and any art that prevents this is 
. false to nature and will end in superficiality. 

Any one can see that such a system is in direct antago- 
nism to the method which has been unfolded in this 
investigation. The mind is centered upon the mechan- 
ism. Every analysis and every rule laid down, tends to 
develop this. There is an endeavor, in studying litera- 
ture, to adapt a piece to a certain tone, a certain mode of 
delivery. The mode of delivery is studied as a thing in 
itself, independent of the thought of the passage. The 
mind is centered upon manner, rather than upon matter ; 
upon the means, and not upon the substance ; upon the 
effect, and not upon the cause. 



The Mechanical School. 319 

In the method contended for here the mind is to be 
centered upon the idea as the fundamental cause, the 
voice and body are to be put in tune by training, so that 
they will spontaneously respond to the conceptions of the 
mind and the emotions of the soul. In this way only will 
the fundamental actions of nature be rendered sponta- 
neous, according to her own intention. While there 
must be a perfect knowledge of the normal and abnormal 
methods of expression in nature and perfect skill in 
execution, still the mind must ever be taken up with 
fundamentals, not with accidentals. There must be no 
artificial system of the "signs of emotion," elevated to 
something greater than the substance itself. While a 
man becomes conscious of himself and enters into pos- 
session of himself, he does not interfere with the uncon- 
scious and spontaneous tendencies of his nature. If all 
is made conscious, all will be unreal and superficial, and 
the great depths of the soul can not be revealed or the 
highest possibilities of expression realized. True expres- 
sion does not depend upon a few artificial conditions of 
pitch and stress and inflection, but upon an infinite com- 
plexity of modulations which can never be completely 
reproduced by any conscious or deliberative process. 
The highest art is indirect, whatever is meant by nature 
to be conscious and whatever is meant by nature to be 
unconscious must be developed according to their funda- 
mental impulse ; the perfect man and the perfect artist 
ever being one who co-ordinates conscious direction with 
the unconscious and spontaneous impulses of his nature. 
The idea itself must be present before the mind and held 
as a stimulus to expression rather than any mere mode of 
mechanical execution or knowledge of so-called "signs." 

Thus, even if the " signs of emotion " could be found, 
this method would be wrong. But the true signs of emo- 



320 Tradition. 

tion have not been given in the Rush system. There is 
no distinction between weakness and strength. Whole 
classes of expressive actions like tone-color are forgotten. 
Everything is artificialized. It is a system that is the 
arrangement of a few facts and rules which are to be 
practiced, and in whose narrow circle every piece of liter- 
ature must be confined. Faults have not been traced to 
their causes. The seat of all faults is supposed to be in 
the ignorance of the reader in regard to proper rules for 
inflection, or for stress, or for emphasis. There is little 
or no tracing of such faults to incorrect mental action. 

Hence, the correction of faults has not been radical. 
Some have not even deigned to notice faults ; consider- 
ing them part of the art, and even to be practiced. In 
a higher form of the school there has been local study 
of faults and application of local remedies ; but this does 
not go deep enough — does not reach the cause. Even so 
far as the physical is concerned, there has been in every 
case, a study of some expedient by which each fault can 
be corrected directly ; for example, when the voice is 
metallic, the pillars of the soft palate are found to be too 
near together, and the correction of this defect has been 
merely to get control of these pillars, and to directly hold 
them apart in speech, until such action becomes habitual. 
Nasality is caused, according to these teachers, by slug- 
gishness of the soft palate, and so the remedy has been to 
get control of the soft palate. Thus, whenever there is 
an imperfection, there has been an endeavor to apply some 
local remedy for its correction. In fact, it has been con- 
tended by many writers that all faults of speech are 
merely local, and the correction, a simple thing, merely 
a matter of securing control over these specific actions or 
local parts occasioning the fault. Thus, there has been 
continual emphasis of the idea that elocution is a mechan- 



The Mechanical School. 321 

ical thing and that all faults have their centre in some 
incorrect action of the agents. 

Again, there has been in the mechanical school, great 
emphasis of accidentals rather than of fundamentals. For 
example, a certain pitch is given for each emotion. Any 
one who will think and observe nature, will find that 
pitch is a purely accidental thing; it is not an essential 
element in the expression of emotion. Joy, for example, 
may be given on a high pitch or a low pitch. It is, in 
fact, a very essential element in true expression, that 
there shall be ability to secure control of the expression 
of each emotion upon any pitch. In place of this, note 
the analysis of an emotion by one of our elocution- 
ists, as already given : "Joy, high pitch, pure quality, 
short quantity, quick time." Not a solitary one of these 
is necessarily expressive of joy, nor with all of them com- 
bined will we necessarily express joy. We may, in fact,, 
express the highest displeasure. All these means are 
the most external, the most superficial of all the actions 
which are expressive of the various emotions. Three 
fourths of the time they are not present at all, and if 
a student tries to execute them, in obedience to rules 
founded upon such incidental facts, he becomes in the 
highest degree, mechanical and artificial. By such a 
course, the attention of the whole mind is decentralized 
and placed upon mere accidentals. 

Again, our elocution has been too much upon the 
plane of representation. There is too much imitation. 
There is no appreciation or understanding of the nature 
of manifestation. There is no conception that true deliv- 
ery is ever in the highest sense governed by the laws of 
music. There is no understanding of revelation. All 
pantomime is merely gesture. There is no recognition of 
attitude, which is fundamental and of more importance. 



322 Tradition. 

Besides, even the gesture is of the lowest order, being 
entirely descriptive. 

Another illustration is the fact that students are made 
to stand in artificial attitudes, are told just where to place 
their feet, the distance apart, the angle of the one with 
the other, thus to take attitudes independent of emotion, 
and fix themselves in positions that will resist the dom- 
ination of the body by emotion, which is the fundamental 
principle in all expression. However beautiful the 
attitude may be, the very fact that it is assumed, prevents 
the emotion of the man from dominating the body, makes 
the man rigid rather than flexible, and substitutes an 
artificial action for a natural one. 

Again, all our elocution has tended too much to a 
mere establishing of rules. While there has been an 
endeavor to found rules upon a study of principles, the 
principles themselves are too often related merely to the 
mechanism. The action of the mind and many of the 
most important phases in delivery, have been entirely 
ignored. 

Here is a rule which is given in one of the latest books 
on elocution : " A question beginning with a verb must 
have a rising inflection." Any one can see that this is 
not true one half the time. Such slavish obedience to 
rule leads to a mannerism, leads to doing things in one 
way, makes a free art an artificial art. All delivery is 
like the growth of a tree. It has no external fixture, it 
is the direct unfoldment of the life within, under the 
dominion of the environment without. 

Thus in inflections, stresses and pitches of voice, such 
rules are laid down. There is a clear indication of just 
how everything is to be done, so that the free, living 
action of the voice, which ought to be as unfettered as 
the slender reed playing in the wind, which is intended 



\ 



The Mechanical School. 323 



b>y the Creator to be swayed before the breath of passion, 
as the leaves of the tree are swayed by the breezes of 
Heaven, must be made to conform completely to narrow 
rules. Low pitch for sorrow, high pitch for joy, aspi- 
rate quality for sorrow, orotund for grandeur. There is 
to be always median stress for grief, which, though some- 
times true, if elevated to a universal rule, would limit and 
fetter all spontaneity, all vigor in the action of the mind. 
Pauses are not explained as the gaps in vocal expression, 
caused by the action of the mind, but are said to be 
simply due to grammatical structure, their number and 
length being due to mechanical reasons. 

Mechanical elocution is thus naturally led to take its 
place on the very lowest plane of art. It is these meth- 
ods of instruction which have caused elocutionary art to 
be taken up with mere objective representation. It has 
become a mere show. Readers do not select the best 
literature, they choose those pieces which are capable of 
verbal quibbles, of verbal imitation and objective repre- 
sentation. The great point is to be representative, not 
manifestive, often not even expressive. The great central 
feeling, the great central thought, is sacrificed for 
externals. Elocution, instead of being as it should be, 
the freest of arts, has become the most conventional. 
There has been an endeavor too often to substitute the 
conventional for the natural. 

As a proof that mechanical elocution has not met the 
requirements of the problem, it has been rejected by 
many of our greatest public speakers as useless. In the 
courses of lectures given at the Yale Divinity School by 
the leading clergymen of the country, only a few have 
approved of elocution. 

Again, in characterization, elocution has been over- 
thrown and rejected by actors, because of its absolute 



324 Tradition. 

artificiality. Some of our public readers in giving Mac- 
beth or Shylock or the Weird Sisters, merely cramp the 
throat and give an artificial, constricted tone. As we look 
at the face there is no sign of mental assimilation of the 
character ; there is no sign of dramatic instinct, all is the 
product of a mere elocutionary trick, a trick of the throat, 
which is, nine tenths of the time, untrue to nature, unlike 
anything on earth. Stage art may be upon a low plane, 
but it can not endure such perversion as this. 

The Rush School is not the only mechanical school. 
It is only chosen as the leading one. A book by one of 
the leading teachers of Boston — just issued from the 
press — contains extracts marked in the most mechanical 
way for students to follow. Nothing is left to difference 
of personality or the unconscious or spontaneous impulse 
of, the soul. All must not only be conscious and deliber- 
ative, but must be given by every person in the same way. 
Lest this be thought an exaggeration, let the book be 
opened at random and extracts marked in this way will 
be found : 

"Can't you be cool like me? What good can passion 
do ? Passion is of no service, you impudent, insolent 
reprobate. Mark ! I give you six hours and a half to 
consider this ; if you then agree, without any condition 
to do everything on earth that I choose, why — confound 
you, I may in time forgive you." 

Such marks might be occasionally used to train the ear 
of a student, but even then it is always better to have 
some extract done in a variety of ways. The way such 
marked extracts are usually taught degrades all expres- 
sion to the plane of a mechanical art. 

The popularity of the mechanical method, and especially 
the Rush system, is strange. I.t is probably owing to two 
reasons. It is rather flattering to a man to tell him that 



The Mechanical School. 325 

his thought is great, that he has imagination and passion 
and all the requisites of a great speaker. He only needs 
a few rules to execute certain vocal actions and he will be 
all right. A man often takes it personal to be spoken to 
in regard to the action of his mind. The second reason 
is the longing on the part of elocutionists to find a scien- 
tific basis for their instruction. The mechanical system 
seemed to get at some definite facts upon which a system 
could be built. 

There is no doubt a truth in the mechanical school. 
It shows the importance of thorough scientific knowledge 
of the exact difficulty in the technical action of the voice. 
A debt must always be due to Rush for his service to the 
science of the speaking voice, while he himself was not a 
teacher. One half of the things he contended for were 
useless, on«ecount of the fact that he made no distinction 
whatever between the normal and the abnormal in nature, 
between the expression of weakness and strength, between 
the ideal intentions of nature and what is merely due to 
bad habit and perversion. Still, he did analyze correctly 
the length of inflections, and while his " shock of the 
glottis" is wrong and has been given up by the best 
teachers, yet that there is a stress in the speaking voice, 
a radical and a vanish different from the singing voice, 
was clearly shown by him. Teaching, as he did, the 
importance of analyzing into its fundamental nature the 
speaking voice, the special incorrect physical action in 
faults has been found and a more radical treatment of 
defects made possible. The elements of melody having 
been partly explained, men have been set to observe more 
carefully the phenomena of speech ; so that Rush's sys- 
tem has indirectly rendered important service in unfold- 
ing knowledge which must be understood in improving 
delivery. 



XIX. 

THE IMPULSIVE SCHOOL. 

All art must be preceded by a certain mechanical expertness. — Goethe. 

The reaction against such mechanical methods must 
have begun early. Criticisms and condemnations of elo- 
cution have been growing more and more common for 
the past hundred years. The critics, however, are usu- 
ally so general, so vague and indefinite, that it is hardly 
possible to present their arguments in a systematic or 
adequate manner. No criticism of any consequence 
appeared or was put into any definite form until Arch- 
bishop Whately published his Rhetoric, in 1825. The 
fourth part of this work is devoted entirely to the sub- 
ject of elocution. The Rhetoric appeared a very short 
time before Rush's book, but, evidently, neither ever saw 
the other's work. Whately's criticisms are chiefly 
directed against Sheridan, but Sheridan was only selected 
as a type and was probably chosen because he was the 
best and most illustrious of all the teachers of elocution, 
and as Whately himself says, all his criticisms apply 
with equal force to Walker or other teachers of elocution, 
and as has often been recognized, they apply with espe- 
cial force to Rush. That this is true is shown by the fact 
that so many of Rush's successors have taken it upon 
themselves to answer the arguments of Whately. 

The influence, direct and indirect, of this discussion by 
Whately has been very great. Since his book, no work 
upon rhetoric has given any attention whatever to deliv- 
ery, while before his Rhetoric was published, delivery 
was considered an essential part of rhetoric. The widely 



The Impulsive School. 327 

extended opposition to elocution among scholars has been 
directly or indirectly colored by Whately's views. Any 
review, therefore, of the subject would be incomplete 
without a consideration of Whately's criticisms. 

Whately not only criticised elocution, but professed 
to present an original method or system of dealing with 
the difficulty ; but his criticisms were far more effective 
than his construction of a better method. In fact, he 
did not show any adequate remedy, and has founded what 
some have called systems of "no elocution" which, for 
the sake of a convenient term we will call the impul- 
sive school. Treating the errors of mechanical elocu- 
tion, as I think, clearly, and himself furnishing no rem- 
edy, many came to believe that there was no such thing 
as a true elocutionary method. His discussion is very 
broad and recognizes many of the fundamental elements 
of the great problems of delivery, and no teacher of elo- 
cution has ever spoken more earnestly upon the import- 
ance of a good delivery and of the imperfect character of 
modern oratory in this respect, than this greatest critic of 
the prevailing methods. "On the importance of this 
branch," he says, "it is hardly necessary to offer any 
remark. Few need to be told that the effect of the most 
perfect composition may be entirely destroyed, even by a 
delivery which does not render it unintelligible ; that 
one, which is inferior both in matter and style, may pro- 
duce, if better spoken, a more powerful effect than 
another which surpasses it in both these points ; and that 
even such an elocution as does not spoil the effect of 
what is said, may yet fall far short of doing full justice 
to it." He says that, while he opposes artificial systems 
he must not be understood as advocating no system at all. 

He shows, however, that although the subject has 
engaged so much attention, and though it has been con- 



328 Tradition. 

fessed that the delivery of the modern orator is more 
imperfect than any other part of his function, yet that 
hitherto all efforts to develop delivery have failed. 
"Probably not a single instance could be found of any 
one who has attained by the study of any system of 
instruction that has appeared, a really good delivery ; but 
there are many, probably nearly as many as have fully 
tried the experiment, who have by this means been totally 
spoiled — who have fallen irrecoverably into an affected 
style of spouting, worse, in many respects, than their orig- 
inal mode of delivery. Many accordingly have, not unrea- 
sonably, conceived a disgust for the subject altogether; 
considering it hopeless that Elocution should be taught 
by any rules, and acquiescing in the conclusion that it is 
to be regarded entirely as a gift of nature, or an accidental 
acquirement of practice." He proceeds then to criticise 
the systems of elocution and to point out the causes of 
their failure. " There is," he says, "one principle run- 
ning through all their precepts, which being, according to 
my views, radically erroneous, must — if those views be 
correct — vitiate every system founded on it. The prin- 
ciple I mean is, that in order to acquire the best style of 
delivery, it is requisite to study analytically the emphases, 
tones, pauses, degrees of loudness, etc., which give the 
proper effect to each passage that is well delivered — to 
frame rules founded on the observation of these — and 
then, in practice, deliberately and carefully to conform 
the utterance to these rules, so as to form a complete 
artificial system of elocution." 

Whately goes on to show why a speaker's conscious 
presentation of arguments was justifiable and conscious- 
ness of delivery was unjustifiable. The speaker must be 
conscious of his arguments because the chief aim of his 
discourse is to convince, while his delivery, being only a 



The Impulsive School. 329 

means to an end, should not seem to call attention to 
itself. 

His fundamental objection to Sheridan is that this 
writer adopts a peculiar set of marks for denoting the 
different pauses, emphases, etc., and applies these, with 
accompanying explanatory observations, to the greater 
part of the Liturgy, and to an essay subjoined; recom- 
mending that the habit should be formed of modulating 
the voice by his marks ; and that afterward readers 
should "write out such parts as they want to deliver 
properly, without any of the usual stops ; and, after having 
considered them well, mark the pauses and emphases by 
the new signs which have been annexed to them, accord- 
ing to the best of their judgment." 

The summary of his criticism will be best presented in 
Tris own words : " First, such a system must necessarily 
be imperfect, because, though the emphatic word in each 
sentence may easily be pointed out in writing, no variety 
of marks, that could be invented — not even musical 
notation — would suffice to indicate the different tones in 
which the different emphatic words should be pro- 
nounced; though on this depends frequently the whole 
force, and evert sense of the expression. Secondly : But 
were it even possible to bring to the highest perfection 
the proposed system of marks, it would still be a circui- 
tous road to the desired end. Suppose it could be com- 
pletely indicated to the eye in what tone each word and 
sentence should be pronounced according to the several 
occasions, the learner might ask, ' But why should this 
tone suit the awful — this, the pathetic — this, the narra- 
tive style ? Why is this mode of delivery adopted for a 
command — this, for exhortation — this, for a supplica- 
tion ? ' etc. The only answer that could be given is, that 
these tones, emphases, etc., are a part of the language ; 



330 Tradition. 

that nature, or custom, which is a second nature, suggest 
spontaneously these different modes of giving expression 
to the different thoughts, feelings and designs, which are 
present to the mind of any one, without study, speaking 
in earnest his own sentiments. Then, if this be the case, 
why not leave nature to do her own work ? Impress but 
the mind fully with the sentiments, etc., to be uttered; 
withdraw the attention from the sound, and fix it on the 
sense, and nature, or habit, will spontaneously suggest 
the proper delivery. 

"That this will be the case is not only true, but this is 
the very supposition on which the artificial system 
depends ; for it professes to teach the mode of delivery 
naturally adapted to each occasion. It is surely, there- 
fore, a circuitous path that is proposed, when the learner 
is directed, first to consider how each passage ought to 
be read ; i. e., what mode of delivering each part of it 
would spontaneously occur to him, if he were attending 
exclusively to the matter of it ; then, to observe all the 
modulations, etc., of voice, which take place in such a 
delivery ; then, to note these down, by establishing marks, 
in writing; and lastly, to pronounce according to these 
marks. This seems like recommending, for the purpose 
of raising the hand to the mouth, that he should first 
observe, when performing the action without thought of 
anything else, what muscles are contracted — in what 
degrees — and in what order ; then, that he should note 
down these observations ; and lastly that he should, in 
conformity with these notes, contract each muscle in due 
degree, and in proper order ; to the end that he may be 
enabled, after all, to lift his hand to his mouth ; which, 
by supposition he had already done. 

" Lastly, waiving both the above objections, if a person 
could learn thus to speak, as it were, by note, with the 



The Impulsive School. 331 

same fluency and accuracy as are attainable in the case of 
singing, still the desired object of a perfectly natural as 
well as correct elocution, would never be in this way 
attained. The reader's attention being fixed on his own 
voice — which in singing, and there only, is allowed and 
expected — the inevitable consequence would be that he 
would betray, more or less, his studied and artificial deliv- 
ery ; and would, in the same degree, manifest an offens- 
ive affectation." 

He then proceeds to unfold his own method, which is 
to avoid the evils unfolded in these criticisms, and says 
that "The practical rule, then, to be adopted in conform- 
ity with the principles here maintained is, not only to 
pay no studied attention to the voice, but studiously to 
withdraw the thoughts from it, and to dwell as intently 
as possible on the sense, trusting to nature to suggest 
spontaneously the proper emphases and tones. He who 
not only understands fully what he is reading, but is 
earnestly occupying his mind with the matter of it, 
will be likely to read as if he understood it, and thus to 
make others understand it ; and in like manner, with a. 
view to the impressiveness of the delivery, he who not 
only feels it, but is exclusively absorbed with that feeling, 
will be likely to read as if he felt it, and to communicate 
the impression to his hearers. But this can not be the 
case if he is occupied with the thought of what their 
opinion will be of his reading, and how his voice ought 
to be regulated — if, in short, he is thinking of himself, 
and, of course, in the same degree abstracting his atten- 
tion from that which ought to occupy it exclusively." 

The system proposed by Whately has often been 
shown to be inadequate. It would have been far better 
if Whately had left the problem untouched, unless he 
could have devoted more attention to it. He did not 



332 Tradition. 

penetrate to the fundamental need in developing deliv- 
ery. He furnished no solution of the problem. 

Many persons acknowledge, says Whately, that it is 
a great fault of a speaker to be too much occupied with 
thoughts respecting his own voice and delivery, but there 
may be some attention ; but he says there is no middle 
ground, that a middle course entirely nullifies the advant- 
ages of his system, that the reader will be sure to pay 
too much attention if he pays any at all, or if he does 
not strenuously withdraw his attention from it. 

Many have been the answers given to this criticism 
upon elocution ; George Vandenhoff, Zachos and others 
have endeavored to answer the criticisms. They contend 
that there must be attention direct at the time, that the 
consciousness of the man must be upon delivery, and 
endeavor to answer Whately by turning upon him his 
own arguments from logic and rhetoric, entirely ignoring 
his anticipation of this argument. 

None of the answers have, in my judgment, been 
effective ; and hence, it is not wonderful that a custom 
of absolute neglect of delivery has arisen. Many views 
follow, consciously or unconsciously, in the path of 
Whately, without going to the depth of the subject. It 
might be well to discuss the subordinate divisions into 
different forms of this school. One might be named the 
homiletic. The homiletic method consists in having the 
students speak with very long criticisms upon their needs, 
that they may know their faults So as to think of them 
at the time of delivery and correct them by conscious 
avoidance, the criticism being taken up with certain 
points which are entirely external. This method, though 
possibly founded upon Whately, is in contradiction to 
his suggestions, as it is the most direct method of calling 
"attention to modes of delivery at the time of speaking." 



The Impulsive School. 333 

Another form might be called the sentimental. One 
prominent teacher says that "all vocal technique is a 
necessary poison." Students are recommended by the 
advocates of this method to come into class and sit and 
meditate over certain great themes, and absorb the spirit 
of delivery ; they say it will come to them unconsciously, 
that there is no need of work upon modes of execution. 
In the foremost institution which follows this method 
there are never any examinations. Again and again 
students are received with the understanding that they 
are to do no work at all, but simply to sit and listen and 
absorb. And such students go away with a degree 
conferred upon them, it is understood, by the authority 
of some great state. Such views are too ridiculous to 
need any discussion. Of course this is an exceptional 
case, but it shows the ridiculous extent to which senti- 
mentality in educating delivery can be carried. 

The truth which is emphasized by the impulsive school 
is that the problem is not a mechanical one. "It is the 
soul that speaks," and not the mere body. The soul 
must be studied as well as the body. No set of marks 
must come between the soul and its mode of manifest- 
ation. Its weakness is, that it overlooks the nature of 
art which demands technical skill as well as impulse. It 
overlooks habit. There is no conception of training as a 
method of correcting abnormal conditions. The state- 
ment that if a man has the thought and is stirred by the 
feeling he will be likely to say it right, is true, if the man 
were normal, if all the channels of expression were open 
and if the man were free from bad habits. But to give 
no attention to habit or right and wrong modes of execu- 
tion, to have no regard for unbalanced emotional con- 
ditions or perverted channels of expression, is to abandon 
men to all sorts of wild impulses and to reduce all 



334 Tradition. 

oratorical delivery to chaos. This has been the result of 
Whately's work. During the last fifty years less and 
less attention has been given to delivery, until now men 
stand up before audiences with their hands in their 
pockets, and with scarcely a movement of the body or 
modulation of the voice, give thought with no relation to 
experience. 

The indirect results of Whately's work have been 
helpful. The emphasis of the importance of not placing 
the mind upon mere modes of delivery has prevented, in 
many cases, artificial results which naturally follow from 
the mechanical school. While it has caused absolute dis- 
trust of the. mechanical school among the best scholars it 
has left many with a firm belief that something must be 
done for delivery ; and while elocution is condemned, yet 
many have been heard to say, "It seems to me there 
must be a science of voice that can save us from wasting 
our energy." The spirit of Whately was so fair, his 
emphasis of the importance of developing delivery, and 
his endeavor himself to formulate a kind of system, as 
well as his qualifications in his foot-notes of his criticism, 
make us feel that he himself did not have a complete 
, grasp of the problem with which he was dealing 



XX. 

THE SPECULATIVE SCHOOL. 

It seems to me the danger in teaching elocution, although I do not claim to be an 
authority, is that some formal and artificial method should supersede nature. 

— Henry Irving. 

Another method introduced within the last twenty- 
five years must be discussed in this place. The so-called 
Delsarte system has already taken many forms, owing to 
its being grafted upon old systems. 

Delsarte never published any thing himself. His sup- 
posed writings were bought by three Americans, but they 
were sorely disappointed at the few relics that came into 
their possession. After his death, a priest, who had stud- 
ied with Delsarte, published without any authority what- 
ever, the notes he had taken of his lessons. The little 
book was published in Paris for fifty cents, but even at 
this price, the small first edition was not sold; a poor 
translation, however, by one who knew nothing of Del- 
sarte, was published in America, and sold at two dollars 
a volume, greatly to the financial gain of its publisher. 
The book was universally condemned by every one who 
knew any thing of Delsarte, both in France and in this 
country. It was crude, and misrepresented his method. 
It has hurt Delsarte wherever it has been published, and 
robbed Madame Delsarte of any money she might have 
gained from gathering and publishing her husband's notes 
in a complete and unperverted form 

Thus, the history of the work of Delsarte is very curi- 
ous. In France, the birthplace of the system, though 
many teachers can be found who studied with Delsarte, 
yet not one of them teaches in accordance with his meth- 
ods, but in this country it has been almost universally 



336 Tradition. 

accepted. One cause of its being received so enthusiast- 
ically, was no doubt the almost universal dissatisfaction 
with the mechanical methods. Teachers were eager for 
any thing that might give promise of a philosophical 
basis for a better method. Another cause was the able 
lectures delivered by Delsarte's favorite pupil, Mr. Steele 
Mackaye, in different cities of the United States, during 
the winters of 1869-70 and '72-73. The wonderful 
control of his body illustrated the power of the master's 
training, in most complex movements. Still another 
cause was the exaggerated claims that the system con- 
tained a key, not only to all the difficulties of delivery, 
but to all art and to the whole universe. Some teachers 
claimed to have wonderful notes which they had secured. 
There was a universal longing for some adequate method, 
and as there was no distinct explanation of this system, 
the imagination of men elevated it to a fanciful height. 
All this encouraged the wildest pretensions. 

So exaggerated are the claims which have been made 
for the system of Delsarte, that all French acting has 
been held up in this country as the fruit of the work of 
Delsarte. As a matter of fact, the work of Delsarte was 
almost completely discarded by the French people. He 
himself said to Madam Pasca, " Your greatest hindrance 
will be your teacher." He was appointed at one time an 
instructor in the National Opera, but the artists went 
to the directors inside of a month and declared that they 
would resign if he was not sent away. 

I regret very much that it is necessary to review the 
system before there is any adequate publication of the 
elements of the method from one who has followed it and 
who believes in it. I have studied it for many years, but 
a part of it I never believed and I have grown further 
and further away from the part I did believe, with 



The Speculative School. 337 

every year of increased experience and study of nature. 
Besides, I received all my knowledge second hand. I 
have studied with every known pupil of Delsarte, but I 
never saw the master himself. 

Mr. Steele Mackaye is thoroughly competent to give 
the world an outline of the system of Delsarte, but he 
has allowed himself to be engrossed with other things, 
and neglected to give the world an adequate presentation 
of .the method of the master who so loved and honored 
him. Much of the work which is popularly known as 
Delsarte in this country is an absolute perversion, or at 
least, does not faithfully represent the work of the master. 
It represents the mechanical, the weak side of the work, 
more than the strong side. The great principles of train- 
ing which Delsarte originated, are entirely forgotten,, 
while only his system has been promulgated and held up 
before us as Delsarte. This system, to the best French 
minds, who saw its results, was the worst type of a 
mechanical system. 

Thus, it can be seen that it will be very difficult to 
give an outline of his work. In the work on the history 
of elocution there will be an endeavor to bring out its 
weak and strong sides, but this work would be incomplete 
without an outline of that which is popularly known as 
Delsartism, that it may be compared with the other lead- 
ing methods. 

It may be well to state that the old master disliked the 
word "system". He contended that his was simply a 
philosophy of nature, and that his teaching, like that of 
all great teachers of song, was simply a method ; but his 
so-called philosophy is most emphatically a system, and, 
as will be shown, a very artificial one at that. 

The fundamental idea of the system, according to the 
so-called Delsartians, is that every thing in its elements 



33 8 Tradition. 

is a trinity. Different teachers have presented the sys- 
tem in different ways. Professor Monroe and his pupils 
began with God ; God's fundamental attributes, love, wis- 
dom and power, being the first trinity. God, man and 
the world form another trinity. Man himself, has soul, 
mind and life. The body of man is composed of torso, 
head and limbs. Each agent in man's body has a center, 
a summit and a base. All these, with innumerable 
others, passing through every thing, even down to a stick 
with its two ends and a middle, are in correspondence. 
The system seems to be founded upon the doctrine of 
correspondences in Swedenborg, and some have said that 
Delsarte was a very earnest student of Swedenborg's 
writings, though we have no absolute testimony on this 
head ; but Professor Monroe, who. worked out a similar 
system before he knew of Delsarte, obtained his trinities 
from Swedenborg. 

Others still begin with "the outside of the universe," 
time, space and motion. One of the leading advocates of 
the system once gave a course of lectures upon it. He 
began with a point, as this is the simplest object of 
nature, and could not be conceived without giving it 
cosmic existence — without giving it length, breadth and 
thickness — so every thing, he argued, must be a trinity 
when traced to its fundamental elements. I have heard 
Mr. Mackaye start an explanation of the system from 
many different points of view. However, the beginning 
may be made, the conclusion is the same that every thing 
is based on this idea of a trinity, and that if we do not 
conceive it as such, we do not have complete grasp of the 
truth. The applications of this to expression were mani- 
fold. One point is the significance of each agent of the 
body. The head for example, is mental, the limbs are 
vital, the torso is affectional in significance. The arms 



The Speculative School 339 

denote sensibility, the shoulder is the thermometer of 
passion, the wrist and hand the thermometer of mental 
activity, the elbow the thermometer of the moral, and so 
on through every part of the body. 

Every phase of being and body, of thought and lan- 
guage, must be divided according to this system of threes. 
In reading a selection, or studying a part, the great ques- 
tion is whether it is predominately moral, predominately 
vital or predominately mental. 

Delsarte endeavored to construct a chart of the whole 
universe in accordance with this artificial principle. 
Many years ago three different copies of this chart of 
man, which was a part of his chart of the universe, fell 
into my hands. As neither of these has ever been pub- 
lished, to my knowledge,' I will print one of them here as 
the best means of presenting in a few words the system. 
These three charts evidently belong to three different 
periods of his life. I choose the one belonging to the 
middle period as the one most free from mistakes. 

The lower half of the chart relates to organs, or 
agents of the body concerned in expression, and to their 
use as languages ; all above this is supposed to show the 
faculties of man's psychic nature. It was Delsarte's 
belief that the Psychic and Organic were in perfect cor- 
respondence. Speech is the manifestation of mind or 
man's reason ; pantomime, of the soul or the spiritual 
nature, and tone, of the vital nature ; each principle of 
being having thus a special language in manifestation. 
The chart is an endeavor to cramp the Psychic faculties 
and their characteristics into agreement with the organic 
agents, or to show the agents and the faculties in exact 
correspondence. 

Great ingenuity was shown on the part of Delsarte in 
his explanations of the terms in his chart, and his little 



340 



Tradition. 




-Aira $M€mymM<$MB[ 



The Speculative School. 341 

audiences, we read in the French papers, were accus- 
tomed to applaud the new definitions. The definitions 
were attractive to some because they were so novel and 
so ingenious, and also because they were so wrought out 
in a mechanical or crystalline form that they could be 
easily comprehended. 

Many of Delsarte's definitions are lost. It may be 
well to enumerate a few that have come down to us. 
" Life expands." " Mind contracts." "Soul modulates." 
"Life joins. Mind separates. Soul re-unites." "Life 
acts fatally. Mind acts disinterestedly. The soul acts 
freely." "There are three forms of variation from the 
normal — by depression, by exuberance and by displace- 
ment of center." "Beauty charms, truth illumines, the 
good perfects." "The artist is one who has knowledge, 
possession and the free direction of the full apparatus by 
means of which the life, the mind and the soul reveal 
themselves." "Knowledge alone makes the critic; pos- 
session added makes the connoisseur." "It is only when 
we have the free direction that we have the artist." 
"There are three elemental modes of measure — by num- 
ber, by volume and by weight. Number is a rational, 
volume is a vital, weight is a moral mode of estimating 
value," etc. 

Another fundamental idea in the system is a combina- 
tion of these three with each other, which has been called 
Delsarte's "law of the nine-fold accord," that is to say, 
whenever we have three, we must necessarily have nine 
in the elemental combination. According to this law of 
combination, the human being composed of three ele- 
ments, was divided into nine elemental faculties. The 
analysis of the mind may be taken as the best means of 
illustrating the system. 

The three elements of the human being according to 



342 



Tradition. 



Delsarte, are life, mind and soul. These* elements, called 
"principles of Being", combining with each other give 
rise to the following nine "faculties" : 



Life of the 


Soul of the 


Mind of the 


Mind. 


Mind. 


Mind. 


Life of the 


Soul of the 


Mind of the 


Soul. 


Soul. 


Soul. 


Life of the 


Soul of the 


Mind of the 


Life. 


Life. 


Life. 



Limbs. 



Torso. 



Head 



Torso 



Limbs 



of Man, 



Head (of the Animal). 



Some, drawing their inference from a more universal 
trinity — God, man, cosmos — use the words human, divine 
and animal. The combination will be as follows : 



Animal-Human. 


Divine- Human. 


Human- Human. 


Animal-Divine. 


Divine-Divine. 


Human-Divine. 


Animal-Animal. 


Divine- Animal. 


Human- Animal. 



Head 



Torso 



Limbs 



of Mam 



Limbs. Torso. Head (of the Animal). 

Now, what are the names commonly given to these 
faculties ? 

I have had many explanations of these faculties, and 
as all essentially agree, they may be understood to be 



The Speculative School. 343 

really from Delsarte ; although there are in some of the 
explanations, especially in those of Mr. Mackaye, many 
additions. I will cling, however, as far as possible to the 
exposition given by Professor Monroe ; as his was the 
earliest I had, it became very firmly fixed in my mind. 

A square divided into nine smaller squares was drawn 
upon the board and a representation of a man upright 
was drawn on one side while an animal horizontal was 
outlined below. " Man has all in him that there is in 
the animal, though the animal does not possess all that 
there is in man." 

The question would be asked, "What is the most fun- 
damental faculty or power of the soul or affectional prin- 
ciple of being?" Delsarte is said to have placed love, 
reverence, contemplation ; the last being the true one. 
This, therefore, is supposed to be the most fundamental 
spiritual characteristic or power of man. The next ques- 
tion would be, "What is the most fundamental character- 
istic of animal life ? " Students in the tread of the 
system could easily begin for themselves to catch the 
right word. All would put "sensation". The next ques- 
tion was, "What is the most fundamental faculty of the 
intellect?" The answer on the part of some would be 
"deduction," some "reason," but Delsarte's word was 
induction, as that which furnishes the most fundamental 
characteristic. Thus, we have the three most essential 
characteristics of the three fundamental principles of 
being. The next question is to fill the other six places 
with combinations. Taking the lower and the base line, 
the question would be asked, "What is the mind of the 
life?" and the answer given was "instinct". Then the 
question would arise, "What is the soul of the animal?" 
The answer given would be that it was "sympathy". In 
this way would be found out the soul of the mind to be 



344 



Tradition. 



conscience; the life of the mind, judgment ; the mind of 
the soul, intuition ; and the life of the soul, sentiment or 
human love. When completed we had the following as 
the elemental faculties* of the psychic nature of man : 



Mind 



Judgment. 


Conscience. 


Induction. 


Sentiment. 


Contemplation. 


Intuition. 


Sensation. 


Sympathy. 


Instinct. 



Soul 



Life 



y of Man. 



Mind. 



"Soul. 



Life 



(of the Animal). 



The form of this last chart was used by Delsarte as a 
means of recording the expression of all the agents — the 
attitudes, functions or gestures of the hand, the feet, the 
head ; in fact, all the actions of every agent in the body. 
The various expressions of every language of man must 
fit into these squares. For example, the whole body may 
be divided by the law of "the nine-fold accord", or "law 
of intertwining" (circumintercessioti), according to the 
significance of each part in expression. Each of these is 
also a zone of expression, so that when the hand rests 
upon any of these it indicates the principle of being "pre- 
dominating in activity at the time". Thus, too, when 
the gesture of the hand or arm starts from any part, 
"the point of departure indicates the principle of being, 
whose predominating activity causes the gesture." 

There are three kinds of motion — toward a center, 
from a center, and about a center; motion toward a 

* These faculties are the same as those at the extreme triangles, page 40. 



The Speculative School. 



345 



center is rational ; from a center is passional ; and about 
a center is affectional in significance. So we come, by 
the combination of the three into nine, naming these 
accentric toward a center, eccentric from a center, and 
normal or concentric with or about a center; by com- 
bination, we have accentro-accentric, normo-accentric, 
eccentro- accentric, accentro- eccentric, normo - eccentric, 
eccentro- eccentric, accentro -normal, eccentro - normal, 
normo-normal. Marks were also arranged to represent 
these : \ stood for accentric, mental ; / for eccentric, 
passional ; j for normal in man, and — for normal in 
animal, moral in significance. A chart of the signifi- 
cance of all parts of the body may serve as an illustration 
of the innumerable applications of this manifold division. 



Vito-mental. 

Mouth. 

Base of Brain. 


Moro-mental. 

Nose. 
Top of Head. 


Mento-mental. 

Region of Eyes. 

Side of Head. 


Vito-moral. 
Abdomen. 


Moro-moral. 

Region of 

Heart. 


Mento-moral. 
Chest. 


Vito-vital. 

Shoulders. 

Hips. 


Moro-vital. 
Elbows. 
Knees. 


Mento-vital. 
Wrists. 
Hands. 



Mind 
\ 



Soul 



Life 

/ 



\* 



Man. 



Mind. 
/ 



Soul. 



Life (of the Animal). 
\ 



It must seem to most minds that this is the result of 
ingenuity, and that the aim is chiefly to fill the squares 
rather than to get at the truth. This is usually the 
result of such a method upon the student. The greatest 
struggle is to find nine kinds of emphasis or nine ges- 
tures or nine different attitudes such as will fit the 
squares. But to the Delsartian, it means more. As 



346 Tradition. 

every thing is upon the basis of the trinity in the founda- 
tion of things, so this nine-fold accord is the test of truth. 
Whatever fits the three is true, and whatever fits the 
nine is true. If we do not get the three and the nine, 
we have not yet the essential elements of the truth. 
The whole universe, when science and investigation shall 
have discovered the whole truth, will be found to be built 
upon the basis of these threes and combinations of 
threes. 

It would seem to any one with any experience in the 
observation of nature that such a system as this would at 
once be rejected, but to many minds it has a very great 
fascination. I wish, therefore, to show carefully some of 
its leading evils. 

In the first place, it is artificial. Things are measured 
by an artificial standard. The mind, the body and nature 
are searched, not for truth, but for something to fit into 
an ingenious and artificial mould. One of the best 
teachers I have ever been privileged to be under, again 
and again said, when two things were presented to him, 
that we did not know the real truth or we would have 
three; we must lay them aside until we can further 
investigate. This same teacher in dividing sunlight into 
its elements, said that it was composed of an illuminating 
principle, heat, and a third element, which he thought 
would be found to be electricity, stating, that "here 
philosophy was ahead of science". Hence, it can be seen 
at once that while there is a seeming comprehension of 
the whole universe, really there is included only one class 
of facts, namely, those where there are three elements. 
There is more or less truth in many of the things which 
Delsarte said ; but the effect is to blind men to the truth. 
The eye is not equally open to observe all the facts of 
nature. The human mind can be made one-sided. 



The Speculative School. 347 

Every man sees things, not so much for what they are, 
as for what he is himself. If two men should pass along 
the same path up a mountain side, the one a botanist and 
the other a geologist, and if each should give an account 
of what he has seen, the difference would be marvelous. 
The attention of each man has been trained to look at 
different classes of things, and so it is in respect to such 
a system or method as this. Men, as Mr. Irving indi- 
cated, are in great danger in elocution of substituting 
an artificial system for nature. Mr. Jevons well says : 
"Nothing is more important in observation and experi- 
ment than to be uninfluenced by any prejudice or theory 
in correctly recording the facts observed, and allowing to 
them their proper weight. He who does not do so will 
almost always be able to obtain facts in support of an 
opinion, however erroneous." 

There is as much difference between this artificial 
system and the real facts of expression as between the 
shrubbery in the gardens at Versailles, trimmed into 
artificial shapes in imitation and for the remembrance of 
the folly of an evil age in landscape gardening, and the 
great trees growing in all the freedom and spontaneity of 
nature. The one is artificial and stiff, and has a very 
unpleasant effect upon any one trained to observe the 
freedom of nature, and can only give delight to an unedu- 
cated and unobserving mind. 

In the second place, it is a system, although the author 
may have disclaimed the word. There is a good sense 
in which the word "system" is used, but when it is 
applied to an art, especially to a method of training, it 
becomes mechanical. In fact, a system in this sense is 
a series of facts built upon a mechanical plan. Nature 
was never built in such a mechanical way. A machine 
can be arranged and regulated by figures, but no tree 



34-8 Tradition. 

ever grows, no volcano ever upheaves to flow along a 
mechanically-laid track ; each obeys a mighty impulse of 
central force. The tree grows from within out, as has 
been proved. Its limbs are not built by mechanical rule, 
but unfolded freely, in proportion to the impulse within, 
the soil, the heat and the moisture. 

The great teachers of the world have ever called their 
modes of work methods, not systems. A method, as the 
etymology of the word shows, is only a mode of accom- 
plishing a result, but a system is the placing together of 
things by the mind. A method is founded upon the 
study of nature ; a system is apt to be founded upon an 
orderly arrangement of facts to suit the convenience and 
purpose of man. The great vocal trainer despises the 
word system. A method he has, but in his use of the 
word he implies a reverence for nature — a reverence for 
the basis of things with the arrangement of which he has 
had nothing to do. 

The danger of a system, especially in art, is to substi- 
tute the individual's conception as the great center 
around which all is arranged. A system in training 
causes a man to prejudge faults, absolutely unfits him for 
criticism, gives him an artificial ideal, causes him to lose 
sight of the great universal types of nature, and espe- 
cially the individual powers and peculiarities of the stu- 
dent. In spite of all that may be done, a system tends 
to make every one alike. The mind is hindered in its 
discovery of fundamental needs, and is prejudiced against 
some of the great facts of nature which do not happen to 
fit his little model. 

One of the chief proofs that the work of Delsarte was 
a system, is that the real points in which he made 
advance have been entirely forgotten by nearly all his 
followers, and only the mechanical system has gone 



The Speculative School. 349 

abroad and has made the terms Delsartian and Delsart- 
ism, by-words among the best histrionic artists and teach- 
ers of the country. 

In the third place, that there are an infinite number of 
threes no one can doubt, but the system is not founded 
upon truth ; it is not true that everything is fundament- 
ally a trinity. If the universe were built upon this plan, 
it ought to be apparent in those sciences which, more 
than any others, have gone to fundamental depths. Of 
all sciences that have gone to the foundation of things, 
chemistry is one of the most important. If the Delsarte 
principle was true, we must expect that everything should 
be built upon a basis of three, and that the nine-fold 
accord would be found everywhere as the elemental mode 
of nature's combination. According to this, water ought 
not to be composed of oxygen and hydrogen, but of three 
elements. According to the Delsarte method of pro- 
cedure, we must throw away oxygen and hydrogen as 
mere illusive phantasms, because we can not find that 
water is composed of three elements. Now we very well 
know that in all the substances in nature, when tested by 
chemistry, there is no such mechanical arrangement. 
Nature is not built upon threes, nor upon any series of 
combinations in a "nine-fold accord". 

Even granting that man has three natures, and a 
correspondence in his body with this triple being, and 
granting that this brings us to many facts, yet to make it 
a universal criterion is false to nature. But even in the 
human body itself it is not true. If we take, for example, 
the hand, how can its multiplex actions be arranged in 
multiples of three? It so happens- by accident that a 
man can stand upon both feet, a forward foot and a back 
foot, but when we come to the gestures of the arm, what 
folly to stop when we have nine and congratulate our- 



35° Tradition. 

selves that we have the whole truth, or later, when we 
have twenty-seven or eighty-one. 

One chief reason for the popularity of the Delsarte 
system is, that it is artificial and by rule. It is as 
mechanical in relation to gesture as the Rush System 
is in relation to the voice. The better portion of the 
work of Delsarte — that relating to training — has been 
forgotten, while the artificial elements have been grafted 
upon the old mechanical school. When one who really 
knows the best work of Delsarte sees the work commonly 
done under that name and hears the terms employed and 
the explanations given, he feels at once that the hand is 
that of Esau but the voice is that of Jacob. 

Just as Rush's system tended to center all conscious- 
ness upon the voice, its stresses and inflections, so the 
Delsarte system tends to center all consciousness upon 
pantomime. The man must be able to think in panto- 
mime. If the pantomime is right the voice will be right. 
This system is a mechanical pantomimic system, as 
Rush's was a mechanical vocal one, and the same argu- 
ments will apply to both. Pantomime is as spontaneous 
and natural a language as vocal expression. They must 
bear the same relation to consciousness. Mr. Murdoch 
holds that pantomime must be completely in the back- 
ground for the voice. Delsarte held that all attention 
should be given to pantomime and that vocal expression 
should result from it. Neither is right. The great 
center of consciousness must be upon the thought and 
action of the mind, and these two natural languages hav- 
ing a great element of spontaneity, must not be brought 
too much into the foreground of consciousness. 

Thus the Delsarte system practically belongs to the 
mechanical school. All spontaneity is simply skill. 
Spontaneity, for example, in pantomime, is the same as 



The Speculative School. 351 

with the player upon the piano. We must first get a 
knowledge of the language of all the agents in the body, 
even of the nose and the eyes ; secondly, acquire skill to 
play upon them until the pantomimic actions become as 
easy as the use of the keys to a player upon a piano. 
There is, of course, an element of truth in this, but the 
hand, unlike a musical instrument, has a physiological 
and an organic connection with the soul of the artist. 
Besides, it overlooks the fact that nature meant some 
forms of expression to be unconscious and only voluntary 
in the sense of being co-ordinated with other agents. So 
far is this carried, that Delsarte is credited with saying 
that a man without any emotion whatever can be trained 
to make a motion that will raise the hair upon another's 
head, and that the ability to do this makes the man an art- 
ist. One of the greatest advocates and teachers of Del- 
sarte's method says, that an actor must have only what 
he calls "symptomatic emotion". For example, "a man 
can twist his face into such an action that goose-flesh 
will rise upon his back." This is not emotion, but sim- 
ply a symptom of emotion. 

Much, therefore, of the work of Delsarte is built 
upon the views of Diderot ; nearly all the so-called Del- 
sartians naturally hold Diderot's mechanical view, dis- 
cussed in Chapter V. Many of the advocates have been 
chiefly characterized by an admiration for beautiful atti- 
tudes and beautiful motions. Passing along Broadway 
once with a prominent teacher who believes in this sys- 
tem, looking over a number of photographs of actors and 
actresses, he asked if I could "pick out the Delsartians". 
Pointing to one prominent actress, whose stilted and 
artificial attitudes were photographed in all conceivable 
ways, he asked if I saw "the Delsartian attitudes". 
Thus, many people have grown to regard Delsarte's work 



352 Tradition. 

as a display of motions and attitudes, and to believe that 
these are synonymous with expression. This is not 
wholly fair to Delsarte, but there must be some cause for 
its wide-spread diffusion. 

Still another criticism is the exaggerated estimate 
placed upon pantomime. "If pantomime is right, the 
voice must be right." When I once asked M. Regnier, 
the great teacher at the Conservatoir, and leading actor 
for forty years at the Theatre Francais, about Delsarte, 
he said, " He was a very good singer, but his gestures 
were all too labored. He did not have the simplicity of 
nature in his movements." This same criticism can be 
made upon every real follower of the system, whom I 
have ever seen except, possibly, Madame Pasca of the 
Gymnase-dramatique. 

Thus we can see that the Delsarte system is worthy of 
the name applied to it, namely, that it is a speculative 
system ; that it is not founded upon a true observation of 
nature, but is an endeavor to place upon nature a pre- 
conceived artificial conception. 

Delsarte made all training and all practice of expres- 
sion too much an end, and not a means. Every thing 
had to be consciously directed. The action of the agent 
was to be brought into consciousness and done deliberat- 
ively. Nothing was left to spontaneity. There was no 
recognition of the unconscious actions, such as has been 
contended for in this work. Nor did Delsarte carefully 
distinguish between preparatory actions and expressive 
actions. 

Notwithstanding these severe criticisms, Delsarte was 
the most original investigator in the department of deliv- 
ery of any teacher or writer during the present century. 

Among the special points in which he made advance 
over all before him may be mentioned, first, the import- 



The Speculative School. 353 

ance of the preliminary training or the attuning of the 
whole body. This was, of course, universally followed 
among the Greeks, and had been practiced in relation to 
the voice by the teachers of song for hundreds of years, 
but in the realm of histrionic expression and in the use of 
the voice in speech had been almost completely neglected. 
Delsarte did not stand wholly alone in his discovery of 
this point, but he gave it peculiar emphasis, such as it 
had never before received. 

Again, an important point in Delsarte is his emphasis 
of what may be called fundamentals. He taught that 
beneath all accidental actions and combinations, there 
were fundamental actions which, if they could be made 
right, would not only correct faults, but develop power. 
He earnestly taught that if exercises were merely acci- 
dental actions, mediocre results would always follow, 
but if exercises were given upon fundamental actions, 
strength and power would be achieved. None of the 
methods, either by imitation or by mechanical analysis, 
recognize this principle. Imitation always proceeds from 
mere accidental elements. In this respect, Delsarte was 
in advance of Rush. Dr. Rush was not an artist. He 
treated every thing as a scientist. Hence, all qualities of 
the € voice were alike important to him. His guttural 
qualities, his husky and tremulous qualities, though 
recommended to be used, are absolute faults, and the 
mechanical school founded by him has never conceived 
the idea. of distinguishing between what is fundamental 
and what is accidental. 

It may be well to illustrate what Delsarte meant by 
fundamentals. The ordinary method of developing a 
proper position was to have the student place his feet at 
a certain angle, a certain distance apart and the body 
erect. One of the leading teachers made this angle 



354 Tradition. 

always thirty degrees, and the distance apart the length 
of the foot. The man directs his will to hold himself in 
just such a position. The tendency of all such directions 
is to limit and fetter the man ; to fix the body and to pre- 
vent its modulation by passion, which is the fundamental 
element of all expression. The angle of the feet and the 
distance apart are mere accidental facts, which vary 
according to temperament, and according to the intensity 
of emotion dominating the man. Delsarte would say, a 
good position is an important thing ; but there is some- 
thing fundamental to position, that is, poise. So, instead 
of limiting a man and trying to give him a position, the 
body must be so centered or poised that the position 
will be fundamentally correct, while all its accidents 
must be free to be dominated by emotion and passion. 
Poise, thus, is fundamental to position. Poise is some- 
thing unchangeable ; position is something that changes 
with every passion. Thus, work upon accidentals lim- 
its man's freedom. Work upon fundamentals develops 
power. 

Again, to improve a man's pantomime, Delsarte would 
not give a vast number of positions and motions to prac- 
tice, but he would give the student a series, which he 
considered fundamental to all pantomime. Instead of 
literally practicing a great many gestures he would work, 
it is 9&id, for as much as three weeks upon one of the 
steps of his series, the successive unfoldment of the parts 
of the arm, because this is fundamental to all gesture. 
Unless a man develops the fundamental after he has 
made one gesture right, he must repeat the process for 
all the others, but with the fundamentals correct, the 
whole gesticulation of the agent is normally developed for 
all forms of expression. Delsarte contended that work 
upon fundamentals also developed ^precision. If we take 



The Speculative School. 355 

the elemental actions of the head, for example, and study 
them, we become conscious of the tendencies to mix the 
actions of the head. It is this clearness and purity of 
movement which was one of the most important results 
of his training. 

The great characteristic, therefore, of his training was 
a study into the fundamental " norm " of the whole body, 
and each agent in particular. The few elemental actions 
of each agent, absolutely simple and unmixed with any 
other, were the points to which training must be directed 
to develop power in expression. To one who has never 
studied into this nor seen the wonderful variety and 
power that such training gives to the human body, there 
will be no conception of the wonderful results accom- 
plished. Just as in chemistry, there must be pure ele- 
ments to accomplish results in the laboratory, so a man's 
power, his grace of movement, and all the effectiveness 
of his expression, in pantomime especially, is dependent 
upon the distinctiveness of elemental actions. 

Of all Delsarte's pupils with whom I have studied, I 
have had this explained by but two, and by one of these 
only partially and vaguely, and by the other too much as 
a theory ; but to me it is the most important point in 
which he made advance, and in this he must be followed 
if true grace and power of expression is ever developed 
in the whole man. 

The so-called Delsarte system of training which is 
every where spoken of, contains nothing of this idea; in 
fact, it does not come from Delsarte or from Mackaye. 
It is a perversion of some of the exercises mixed with 
the common calisthenic movements ; in some cases even 
musical accompaniment to the exercises has been added 
which was entirely foreign to Delsarte. It is more fre- 
quently governed by sentimental considerations than by 



356 Tradition. 

any principle ever obtained from Delsarte. The attitudi- 
nizing and J>ose positions which are so commonly practiced, 
are in direct antagonism to his method of training. These 
so-called Esthetic Gymnastics do not bring grace, but 
affectation ; they do not develop control over body as an 
agent of the mind, but artificiality; they do not secure 
power, but engender weakness. 

To show how Delsarte's trainings can be perverted, a 
lady has arranged an exercise which she calls "get up 
drunk". Her young lady pupils with dreamy eyes fall on 
the floor and stagger up in the most irregular way pos- 
sible, the torso and upper part of the body completely 
abandoned. She says in explanation that this exercise is 
to enable students to stand with the least possible expend- 
iture of energy. As if the mast of a ship made greater 
strain upon the ropes when in the perpendicular than 
when swaying to and fro at random. Such results as 
these are to be expected when it is remembered that 
many who teach Delsarte, have secured their knowledge 
by merely copying notes without ever going to the source 
of information and without ever mastering a solitary exer- 
cise or even understanding the principle underlying any 
step. Before I studied with Mr. Mackaye, the most 
important exercises were given me entirely at random, 
without any explanation of their purposes, or the princi- 
ples underlying them. Of all the pupils of Delsarte with 
whom I have studied or teachers who teach this system, 
who have not been pupils, he was the only one from 
whom I could secure any explanation of the purposes of 
the exercises, and who could direct me carefully in 
mastering their subtleties or understanding their true 
character. 

The greatest cause of perversion of the exercises and 
training is that superficial students, without any thorough 



The Speculative School. 357 

understanding or preparation and without any permission 
whatever, have published notes, copied in some cases 
directly from Mr. Mackaye, but perverted or explained 
so as to lead students to misconceive their true character. 
The superficial presentation of exercises has in many 
cases completely vitiated their aim. 

Another point in which Delsarte made advance is, that 
pantomime belongs to the whole body. To him every 
part of the body had a language of its own, and the lan- 
guage of each part was different from the language of 
every other. All true expression requires the cultivation 
in diverse directions of each agency. 

There has been a tendency in all English elocution, to 
over-estimate the motions of the arms. The face and the 
rest of the body have been almost entirely neglected. 
Visit some school "exhibition" and notice how the 
motions of the arms are entirely separate from all expres- 
sion in the face. Hence, all pantomime has been called 
gesture. Delsarte showed that in any part of the body 
a motion was meaningless unless it came from and ended 
in an attitude. For example, a gesture of the arm, unless 
it ends in a distinct attitude of the hand, is a mere mean- 
ingless nervous movement. In fact, the spirit of his 
whole method was to show men that the attitudes of a 
man should transcend his motions. 

Delsarte showed the great influence of pantomime over 
the voice, and that the voice can not be thoroughly 
trained to the highest realization of its possibilities with- 
out attention to pantomime. This was, in a great meas- 
ure, the discovery of an old teacher before him. Delsarte 
carried the thought entirely too far. It is not true that, 
"If the body is right, the voice will be right," but that 
there is here a great truth and the key to a vast number 
of difficulties in the voice, is never questioned by one 



358 Tradition. 

who has investigated the voice from such a point of view. 
The color of the voice, to use one fact as an example, is 
caused by the modulation of the texture of the muscles, 
and hence when the texture is hard the voice must more 
or less partake of the same quality, To correct many 
defects of the voice, such as weakness and one-sidedness ? 
the muscular texture of the body must be improved in 
its tone. That pantomime should precede speech is a 
very old discovery, but that pantomime precedes speech 
and is a part of nature's mode of determining the quality 
of the voice and giving it its color and texture, was dis- 
covered by him, or at least his principle has led to its 
discovery. Delsarte also emphasized strongly the unity 
of all the languages of man. While laying too much 
stress upon pantomime, and while he himself lost the 
true unity in expression, yet he aided in an advance. 
The reason for his lack of unity was the focusing of his 
mind upon the pantomime and not upon his ideas, and 
endeavoring to secure unity mechanically and deliberately 
and not from the spontaneous diffusion of emotion and 
the centralization of the impulses of the soul. 

While Delsarte's idea that everything is, in its elements, 
a trinity, is untrue, yet holding that "a trinity is the 
union of three co-essential, co-penetrant and co-extensive 
elements," he emphasized the fact that every product is 
complex. Dropping his idea of the trinity, we can say 
that every product or act of expression is the unity of 
many co-existent and co-essential elements, and we have 
a great truth which is entirely overlooked in ordinary 
elocution. 

Again, while Delsarte discovered the true elementals 
in only a few directions, while he was misled by his 
theory that the fundamentals of everything were a trinity, 
yet he has indirectly led men to search for the true ele- 



The Speculative School. 359 

ments of expression. In fact, the chief advantages of 
his work have been indirect, and while we feel that he 
engaged in many foolish undertakings, and like Madame 
Arnaud, we can not follow him with his trinities "to the 
angels", yet all must acknowledge that he widened the 
field of investigation ; that he led men to study the whole 
man in expression ; that he has gathered — or has been 
the means of awakening others to gather — an infinite 
number of facts regarding pantomime ; that while his 
philosophy was wrong, yet in order to fit out his system, 
he traced certain lines in pantomime which opened new 
avenues of information. Many a theory in the history 
of the world that has been false, like the theory of 
epicycles, has been the means of leading to great discov- 
eries. The theories about alchemy led to the discovery 
of the science of chemistry. 

Again, Delsarte has indirectly aided in the rejection 
of some of the mechanical views of delivery. He has 
indirectly and unconsciously led men to study the mind 
and to study nature. While failing himself to get the 
true psychic action, yet he caused men to study the 
psychic action, and sooner or later this will lead to the 
discovery of the fundamental elements of all expression. 

Thus, the Delsarte system is built upon a series of 
trinities, beginning with the Universe as composed of 
God, consciousness, cosmos ; God as love, wisdom and 
power ; Man as soul, mind and life ; and the organism or 
physiognomic man, as torso, head and limbs, each in 
correspondence as to significance, the first term of each 
group being spiritual, the second rational, and the third 
passional or vital. Each trinity gives rise to a series of 
"nines," as the immediate combination of the three ele- 
ments with each other. Then there are three kinds of 
motions : about a center, toward a center and from a 



360 Tradition. 

center; also, with corresponding significance, which can 
be applied to all the agents of the body and to their 
actions. This, in a word, is the Delsarte system, artificial 
and untrue, bringing narrowness, one-sided views of 
nature and perversion, to any one who gets within its 
constricting grasp. Back of this system there was a 
method of training which is entirely forgotten by nearly 
all teachers. The facts of the system so preponderate 
that the few strong, original elements of training are 
completely buried or so mixed with the system as to be 
almost entirely perverted. 



XXL 

THE ADVANCE NEEDED. 

It is a natural thing that man should speak : 
But whether this or that way, nature leaves 
To your selection, as it pleases you. — Da?ite. 

There are, of course, an infinite number of methods 
for the development of delivery. Each teacher will 
develop, more or less, a method of his own ; and many 
teachers combine elements from several systems, but all 
the leading methods of the present time will fall under 
these four schools. 

It must be remembered that there is truth in every 
one of these methods. The truth in imitation is, that 
impulses toward art, and especially toward expression, 
are awakened from observing expression in others. We 
are sympathetic beings, and, while many will not go 
so far as a distinguished clergyman of a most conserva- 
tive denomination, who, when he wished to preach upon 
a great theme, went the night before to see Hamlet 
acted by Booth, yet any one who will study the nature 
of man, can realize the great inspiration that came to 
him. He did not go in order to preach upon Hamlet, 
or to express any thing as Booth did ; he went that the 
fountains of feeling might be stirred, and that every fibre 
of his being might be made to quiver with life. This, of 
course, was not imitation. It was inspiration from actual 
contact with the expression of great thought and feeling. 
No great art can ever advance without continual observa- 
tion and study of the living action of great artists. 
Clergymen who never hear any speakers except those of 
their own denomination, are nearly always manneristic and 



362 Tradition. 

faulty in delivery. All good teaching requires examples,, 
and of all teaching, the development of delivery requires 
the teacher to be alive in every fibre of his being, and 
able to illustrate every phase of his work. 

Assimilation ever plays an unconscious role in expres- 
sion. Hence, the teacher must so plan his work that 
students may come in contact with the greatest varieties 
of delivery in forms of expression as different as possible 
from their own, thus to avoid the evils of imitation, and 
yet secure the advantages of sympathetic contact. 

The truth in the mechanical method is, that the ele- 
mental vocal actions must be studied, that there must be 
analysis of the mechanism of speech. The mechanical 
nature of faults must be understood. The ear of the 
teacher must be quick to note the specific form of every 
fault, and able to meet the fault directly and indirectly 
mechanically, when necessary, as well as from the eradi- 
cation of its causes. 

The truth in the impulsive method is, that nothing 
must ever be a substitute for the practice of expression 
under the dictates of emotion. Every soul has impulses 
within it toward expression, which must be obeyed and 
developed by practice. The deep, unconscious impulses 
of the human soul are as potent in expression as con- 
scious actions. All mechanical work must be subsidiary 
to this. The dictates of instinct — instinct refined by 
thorough knowledge and cultivation — must ever be the 
final law. 

The great progress made by Delsarte can hardly be 
estimated from the perverted methods which pass under 
his name. His emphasis of fundamentals, the necessity 
of the co-operation of the whole man in unity for perfect 
expression, the preparatory development of the whole 
body, the influence of the body as a whole upon the voice, 



The Advance Needed. 363: 

and the study of the laws of universal art are all of the 
highest importance. 

But have any of these four methods met the great 
needs of the problem ? If so, why do so many leading 
actors discard elocution as something artificial, and as 
having failed to develop delivery ? Why do so many able 
speakers regard it as useless ? 

If we recall some of the aspects of the problem which 
have been unfolded, we can see that many of the most 
important points are not touched by any of these methods. 
Instead of paying attention to the fundamental elements 
of the problem, the tendency in elocution has been to 
devote itself to the outside. There has been little or no 
study into the fundamental causes of faults in delivery. 
Elocutionary teachers, again and again, have sneered at 
the idea of the mind having any thing to do with the sub- 
ject, contending that delivery is wholly a physical thing. 
The almost universal custom has been simply to study the 
effects and to secure the performance of certain mechani- 
cal actions, which are directly concerned with effects. 
Rarely do we find any tracing of faults to psychic causes. 

Again, elocution has been taken up too much with 
some special phase of the problem. Everywhere we have 
some kind of a system. Nearly every elocutionist who 
has not copied his method from another, has built up his 
system upon his success in meeting some special fault in 
delivery. To one it is matter of inflections, to another, 
the whole need is mere stresses, to nearly all, the prob- 
lem of elocution is confined to the external signs of emo- 
tion. Delsarte is almost entirely taken up with his 
speculations about trinities or with pantomime, saying 
that if this is right, all must be right. Thus, all systems 
have been one-sided. Each is founded upon merely one 
aspect of expression. 



364 Tradition. 

Again, instead of a thorough method of training, all 
has been devoted to a mere study of faults and their 
external correction by expedients. If all the faulty ele- 
ments of delivery were removed, there would be little 
left. There is no such thing as a mechanically perfect 
product in nature. The study of mechanical imperfec- 
tions as a basis of developing delivery fundamentally, 
violates the characteristics of nature and every principle 
of modern art. Such a method substitutes mechanical 
art for free art. In mechanical art external, mechanical 
perfection is the fundamental aim ; but in every fine art 
the aim is the revelation of the soul. Faults must be 
removed, but imperfections of a plant are not removed 
as those of a machine. "To err is human," is a saying 
as old as Sophocles. So long as work upon delivery 
is merely to point out defects or endeavor to mechanically 
correct faults, the deeper needs of the man can not be 
met, and there will be a strong tendency to affectation. 
Training must be such as to meet the fundamental needs 
of delivery. The latent powers of a man must be awak- 
ened, and all imperfections as far as possible, must be 
corrected from within. Whatever does not correct the 
causes of faults can not be an adequate remedy. 

Again, elocution has not been studied in accordance 
with the fundamental principles of art. It has been 
regarded as if it were a department of mechanical art. 
The best art is never founded upon the mere study of 
outside mechanism. While all art has a technique, yet 
that art which has nothing but technique, is purely 
mechanical, and will ever be concerned with accidents 
rather than with fundamental causes, and will substitute 
weakness for strength. That there is a mechanical side, 
all can see at once, but any one who has looked into the 
depths of the problem of delivery must see that this 



The Advance Needed. 365 

mechanical side can not be disconnected from the mind 
of the speaker. Delivery is not a mere physical action ; 
the fundamental causes of all faults are in the mind. 
Every one of these methods has overlooked this fact. 

In the face of all this, what advance is needed ? If we 
can get into the innermost instincts and ideals of the 
best artists and teachers, what would be the concurrent 
feeling as to the need of advance ? 

As we review all the facts placed before us, we can see 
at once that it is first necessary to a good method for the 
development of delivery, that the whole man and all the 
fundamental needs of expression and not a mere part, 
shall be considered. A mechanical school of elocution 
not only fails to consider the whole man, but especially 
fails to consider the action of the faculties of the soul 
upon which all expression fundamentally depends, and also 
fails to study all the languages of man, ignoring almost 
wholly if not perverting attitude, the most fundamental 
form of pantomime, but also ignoring some of the most 
important and highest modes of expression peculiar to the 
voice, such as tone-color. 

The so-called Delsarte method, while analyzing the fac- 
ulties of the soul, yet in the practical work of expression 
almost if not entirely ignores the action of the mind as 
the cause of expression. But it also gives us little if any 
attention to the voice, and concerns itself almost entirely 
with pantomime. As has been shown, delivery is the 
revelation of the whole man. The human body is an 
organism ; the voice and body are most intimately associ- 
ated with being, and each of these has a multitude of lan- 
guages which are directly revelatory of the powers of the 
soul. In the work of developing delivery, therefore, no 
one of these facts must be ignored or unduly subordin- 
ated or exaggerated. All the systems have been one- 



366 Tradition. 

sided, mechanical arrangements, and in the hands of many 
teachers have become substitutes for nature. They have 
been founded not upon the study of nature, but upon a 
conventional system or authority. In the practical work- 
ing of all these methods, the action of the mind is almost 
if not entirely ignored. 

But these systems also give very little if any attention 
to the preparatory training of the voice, and concern 
themselves almost entirely with pantomime, as with cer- 
tain artificial vocal actions. 

Any artificial method like Rush's system, which 
endeavors to exaggerate some one little peculiarity of the 
voice, even though it may be true to the expression or 
execution of one man in one peculiar emotion, by being 
made a rule for all emotions and all other actions of the 
voice, which are intended by nature to be different, can 
only end in making all one-sided and artificial. In fact, 
this has too often been the result of the so-called elocu- 
tion ; for it has looked only at one phase of expression. 
It has looked merely at the effect, and has little or noth- 
ing to do with the fundamental cause of expression, 
l>ut simply aims to secure means to accomplish the 
effect. This violates the most elemental principle of 
nature which has been considered a fundamental law of 
education from the time of Comenius. 

Again, attention must be given to all the facts. Any 
adequate method of training must not be founded upon 
a hobby, must not consider merely one side or one lan- 
guage, livery part of man is linguistic. Every part has 
a role to play in expression, and all success in the devel- 
opment of delivery must depend upon developing each 
role and bringing all into harmony. 

The voice and the body must be thoroughly trained 
and prepared for their work, and the action of the mind 



The Advance Needed. 367 

in expression must be developed properly, and a technical 
execution unfolded in connection with the action of the 
mind. There must be a study of all phases of expres- 
sion, co-ordination of all to the exclusion of none ; a study 
of delivery as the expression of the entire man ; the 
manifestation of the whole soul with all its faculties and 
powers through the whole vocal and physical organism, 
with all their various agents and actions ; a discrimination 
between what was meant to be conscious and what was 
meant to be unconscious, and such training should be 
adopted as will not aim to make all conscious. Every 
faculty and power, every agent and every language, must 
be developed according to its own inherent nature. 

There is also needed a deeper study into the funda- 
mental principles of nature, and an obedience to laws, and 
not to rules. William Russell, the father — as he was 
called by Prof. Monroe — of American elocution, said in 
the preface of his leading work, that if elocution could 
not be taught by rule, it could not be taught at all. But 
this is an entire misconception, not only of the subject of 
delivery, but of all art. It is only a mechanical art that 
can be taught by rule. A house may be built by rule, a 
mechanical structure can be executed by rule, but a work 
of art is an embodiment of the fundamental principles of 
nature. It must spring from creative instinct. No mere 
mechanical rule can furnish any substitute for nature's 
methods. Nature does not grow or produce her effects 
according to rule. All is free and spontaneous. To act 
by rule causes everything to be made alike. The one is 
a mere copy, and a copy can be produced by rule. 
Human expression is not an imitative work. It is not a 
mechanical production. Every man's delivery must be 
the revelation of his own character, must be the manifest- 
ation of his own personality. Every idea in the soul of 



368 Tradition. 

a man, every emotion and experience, must necessarily 
have a shade of difference from all others, and that differ- 
ence must be seen in expression. 

Again, while all art is founded upon the study of 
nature, the work of expression requires the most intimate 
and constant study of nature. Some say it is nature her- 
self, rather than art. Whenever things are arranged by 
rule, the fundamental principles of nature are ignored. 
If the feet are arranged at a certain angle, if the thumb 
is to be fixed at a certain point, then all is stiff, and 
expression is limited and fettered; in fact, there is no 
realm of art where rules must be so absolutely ignored, 
as in the realm of expression. So general is the action 
of being upon body, that at times there may be a direct 
reverse of action to produce the same effect. For example, 
under the effect of surprise, whether you pass backward 
or forward depends entirely upon circumstances. For 
example, you may be looking out upon an imaginary rider, 
your whole attention eagerly absorbed and your body 
advanced ; if you see him suddenly fall, then you will 
naturally recoil. Again, you may be standing on the 
back foot gazing upon the same rider, the whole body 
extended with exultation and excitement, but with repose- 
ful confidence ; now when you see the sudden fall, the 
body will more naturally advance. Either of these 
expressions would be satisfactory to an audience, and very 
effective because the body would show movement which 
would indicate the change in the mind. 

Let it not be considered, however, that a principle is 
necessarily vague and indefinite, and that a rule is exact 
and definite. He who has the grasp of a broad and deep 
principle, has something that is unchangeable. Nature 
ever has a stable center and a variable surface. He who 
works by rule is to him who works by principle as he who 



The Advance Needed. 369 

makes leaves by machinery is to the one who plants and 
stimulates the growth of a tree. No man who works by 
rule can get nature upon his side. All spontaneity is 
fettered and excluded. ' The great impulse of nature is 
destroyed. Expression is a co-ordination of the con- 
scious with the unconscious. Too great conscious obedi- 
ence to rule will be injurious. In all true expression, 
nine tenths of the acts must seem to be done for the 
speaker, the same as in all great art. 

There is also needed a broader and more careful study 
of art. All artists have one aim and one principle, 
though they may have varying methods and modes. 
Hence, for any advance in a specific art, there must be 
comparative study of all art. If all dramatic art is simply 
a mirror held up to nature, which shows " the very age 
and body of the time, its form and pressure," and if the 
histrionic phase is still more merely the reflection of the 
particular condition and artistic conception of an age, 
then in order to improve it, to elevate it, there must be 
thorough study of the artistic conception of the time. 
Histrionic expression, if it is to "show virtue its own 
feature, and scorn its own image", ought to be in advance 
rather than behind the other arts ; lacking the perma- 
nence of other arts it ought to compensate by the greater 
intensity, by greater inspiration and by being more full 
of the spirit of progress. Hence, the greater insight and 
recognition of the highest artistic conception of any age, 
ought to be shown in histrionic art. Where histrionic 
expression is behind other forms of art, it cannot be 
advanced without a study of this artistic spirit as seen 
and felt in other arts. And at all times it must be com- 
pared and tested by the standards of these arts that are 
objective and permanent. Study of art quickens a 
teacher's insight. All art is a revelation of the soul. It 



3 /O Tradition. 

is the most ideal form of expression. Therefore the 
study of art is a source of inspiration to the student of 
expression that must not be neglected. 

Elocution has been regarded, as has been already 
shown, as a mere representative or even imitative art. 
The pure and simple manifestation, or revelatory ele- 
ments in it, have been almost entirely ignored. One of 
the most important advances needed in the development 
of expression is a recognition of the real philosophical 
principles underlying music as the art most akin to deliv- 
ery. It can be seen at once that the conception of the 
relation of expression to art greatly affects methods of 
developing expression. Rush's mechanical signs of emo- 
tion are inadequate, when we look at the manifestive 
elements in expression, and until we do so, we are very 
apt to overlook their artificial and superficial character. 
If expression is regarded as merely representative, we 
are apt to exaggerate mechanical elements. Working 
upon them so exclusively, the manifestive elements are 
destroyed. On the contrary, if expression is chiefly 
manifestive, the principles that have been laid down as 
to training the mind and the training of the voice and 
body, can be seen to be necessary, and the whole work is 
changed. 

Again, there should be a more thorough study of the 
results of modern science, a scientific as well as artistic 
study of nature. In the midst of the deeper insight into 
the processes of nature, into the laws of evolution and 
growth, which have been gained during the last fifty 
years, it is wonderful that there has been so little study 
into the principles of training. There has been some 
study of the physiological aspects of the problem, but the 
deeper and broader aspects of training are wholly 
unstudied, or at any rate, as yet unrecognized by scicn- 



The Advance Needed. 371 

tific men. A science of training becomes absolutely 
necessary when a teacher comes face to face with an 
awkward man without any control of his limbs, whom he 
desires to elevate along the lines of nature's intention, or 
in contact with a voice constricted and hard, nasal and 
throaty, which he must improve. Mere hap-hazard prac- 
tice has unfortunately been the custom or practice in 
elocution in accordance with some mechanical and arti- 
ficial system, but neither of these have ever been ade- 
quate. The voice is not a machine and cannot be built. 
It is a part of nature, and must be developed in accord- 
ance with her laws. 

There is a tendency at the present time to consider the 
word training as having reference to athletics, and the 
development of great and unusual strength for the accom- 
plishment of specific feats. But a true science of train- 
ing must secure control over voice and body, must bring 
man's organism under control of his being, must develop 
both ease and strength, grace and power, beauty and 
health, and not affectation or external and superficial 
modulation, but skill in revelation of the mind and soul. 
There is also great need for specific application of a 
scientific method to all the work of expression. The 
great discoveries in science since the time of Newton 
have resulted from a specific method as has been shown 
by Mr. Jevons. A union of induction with deduction 
has been the method followed by every discoverer since 
Sir Isaac Newton. 

The true scientific method is first the formation of a 
hypothesis from insight into a few facts, and then a long 
course of experiment and observation for the establish- 
ment or disapproval of the hypothesis. Then and then 
only, can we arrive at a conclusion. All the work in 
expression is dependent upon discoveries. The work of 



37 2 Tradition. 

training the voice and body, methods for the development 
of the action of the mind, and in fact, every case requires 
such a course to arrive at the real needs. This, however, 
is not always consciously the case, because the best 
critics and teachers in work of this kind often criticise 
from direct instinct. But the greatest problems and 
difficulties have to be met by most careful and definite 
observation. Every teacher in every department of 
study must have a good method, but a good method is 
absolutely necessary in such subjective work as the devel- 
opment of expression, because there is greater danger of 
going astray than in any other department of education. 

Again, one of the greatest needs of work of this kind 
is co-operation. In all the great sciences the great 
results have been obtained not merely by one man but 
by the co-operation of a great number. Even the great 
law of gravitation was not established by Newton alone, 
and it is doubtful whether Newton could ever have con- 
ceived his hypothesis and got a clue to the course of 
reasoning that established it, had it not been for Keppler 
and others ; and the calculations to verify his law have 
been made and are still being made in every observatory 
in the world. The isolation of teachers of voice, both in 
music and the speaking voice, is greatly to be regretted. 
It has not been possible thus far, for these teachers to 
support periodicals such as would offer them a means of 
co-operating with each other in the investigation of the 
great problems of their work. All such periodicals have 
been in the hands of speculators. It is to be doubted 
whether, except among a few teachers, the sense of 
professional honor toward each other is the same as 
among lawyers and physicians. 

Again, there is needed a more definite and careful 
study of man, not merely of psychology or of physiology, 



The Advance Needed. 373 

but of the latest phases of physiological-psychology, and 
not only all these but a deeper and broader study of man 
as an artistic being. A study, not only of the mind and 
body, but of the actions of the one upon the other; 
not only of the imagination, but of the means of develop- 
ing it, and of its relation to human emotion and of its 
modes of manifestation. There must be such a study of 
the whole man as will enable the teacher to recognize 
both the conscious and the unconscious elements and the 
relation of these elements to each other, so as to enable 
him to adopt such methods as will secure harmonious 
co-ordination of every faculty of the mind and agent of 
the body concerned in expression. 

There is need for more thorough study of the great 
fundamental principles and laws of education. All the 
reforms in education for the past two hundred years have 
been in the direction of expression. All perversions in 
education have violated the fundamental principles of 
true expression. Often there has been an acquirement 
of dry, dead facts, resulting in a mere book-worm ; or on 
the other hand, education has aimed to secure ornamental 
adornment. To harmonize the education of the mind 
with the education of the body, to co-ordinate the power 
of thinking, and the power of feeling, and to harmonize 
all the faculties of the mind, has furnished the greatest 
problem of education from the days of Pythagoras, and 
as we have found, the highest test of this is furnished in 
the study of expression. 

For example, let us note some of the lessons which 
have been furnished to expression, through the reforms 
in education in modern times. The lesson we learn 
from Rousseau in the Emile is, that education can not be 
the result of conventional rules or authority. The final 
appeal must ever be to nature and to spontaneous impulse. 



3 74 Tradition. 

All must not be conscious or deliberative. All must not 
be the result of rules and authority. A great majority of 
the work in education must be through spontaneity, or 
the unconscious unfoldment of nature. Nature must be 
trusted, nature's way is right. 

While Rousseau may possibly have gone too far, yet in 
expression no great results can be achieved without rever- 
ence for nature's methods and nature's impulses. Any 
means of training must be simply the direct and greater 
stimulation of nature's processes, without any reversal or 
perversion of them. They can be directed, they can 
never be reversed. In all development and training it is 
necessary for us to feel what Browning has said in " By 
the Fire-side " : 

" How the world is made for each of us; 

How all we perceive and know in it 
Tends to some moment's product thus, 

When a soul declares itself — to wit, 
By its fruit, the thing it does : 

Be hate that fruit, or love that fruit, 

It forwards the general deed of man, 
And each of the many helps to recruit 

The life of the race by a general plan ; 
Each living his own, to boot." 

By wrong choice and use, nature's help may be made a 
means of perversion. The foundation of all training, if 
not of all education, is the study of nature's elemental 
tendencies, impulses and modes of working; and any 
method must seek to co-ordinate conscious choice with 
the spontaneous impulses, to develop unity in the mind 
and body by exercise, to bring such objects before the 
mind as will stimulate and direct the tendencies of nature 
to the highest efficiency. Rousseau practically taught 
that nature was always right and art always wrong, and 
failed to see that true education is a balance of the two. 



The Advance Needed. 375 

But the world had neglected nature more, and this is the 
case with present elocutionary methods, so that his exag- 
gerations can be easily seen, while his lesson is the most 
important that needs to be learned. 

Again, what lessons can be learned from Comenius! 
The great principle that education must be from within 
out, has already been applied to expression in this work. 
The writer thought at first that the principle was original, 
but found it was unfolded by Comenius in relation to all 
education. As we proceed in the study of Comenius 
we find the lessons so numerous that they can not be 
enumerated. All the principles unfolded by Comenius, 
such as, that "nature never makes any leaps", apply 
directly to the development of expression. 

Again, Pestalozzi and Froebel furnish innumerable 
principles of like application. Nature must be observed. 
"Such objects must be brought before the mind as to 
stimulate spontaneous activity." "Things rather than 
their signs must be studied." 

One of the most marvelous things is, that such teach- 
ers as William Russell, who had himself so many 
advanced ideas upon education, could not see that the 
mechanical suggestions of Rush were in direct violation 
of all the great laws and reforms in education. 

Yet, however much elocution, as it is so commonly 
taught, may be found to violate the great principles of 
advanced education, one thing must ever be said, that 
many elocutionary teachers for the past one hundred and 
fifty years have been reformers in education. They have 
rendered the most important service in advancing the 
study of English. Sheridan outlined a system of educa- 
tion which came very near being adopted. Had it been 
established as he planned, the beneficial results would 
have been very great indeed. It was Walker, with all 



376 Tradition. 

his artificial rules about inflection who wrote the diction- 
ary of the language which has been the foundation of the 
subsequent works and is still quoted as an authority. It 
was Professor Russell and Professor Monroe who mate- 
rially aided in the establishment of those wonderful 
methods in the Boston primary schools, which have been 
in recent years put forth as some great original principle, 
and called by a new name. 

These facts show on the one hand that all the best 
teachers of elocution have ever made a thorough study of 
education, and that they were in accordance with the most 
advanced ideas of their time. On the other hand, these 
facts show that the most advanced methods of educa- 
tion have ever had direct application to a better use of 
English. As the President of Harvard University is said 
to have remarked, "The highest aim in education must 
ever be to enable men to have a better mastery of their 
native tongue." Does not the same principle apply to 
the natural languages, for these are more native to his 
soul ? They are the direct agents of personality, and if a 
correct use of words is "an aid to thought", then cor- 
rect expression of any kind is an aid to the development 
of personality. 

Another advance needed in the study of delivery is, 
that expression must be founded in a more thorough and 
practical study of literature. Literature is itself in all its 
forms but a different phase of expression. Much litera- 
ture is written especially in reference to being histrion- 
ically rendered. Browning's monologues, for example, and 
Shakespeare's plays must be conceived in relation to 
expression, if not as delivered orally. Difficulties in 
Shakespeare vanish at once when a sympathetic mind 
thoroughly understands, and renders them in accordance 
with th$ intention for which they were written; while 



The Advance Needed. 377 

the book-worm student, dreaming alone in his study chair, 
reads difficulties into the play, and makes mountains of 
mole hills, which one with the least dramatic instinct 
can see at once. Of course all Shakespearean criticism 
is not of this kind, but there are many difficulties which 
would vanish with a mere reference to delivery, and the 
elemental principles of histrionic expression. The same 
is true of Browning. Many of his monologues were 
evidently meant by the poet to be rendered. They are 
elliptic and obscure, but many of these obscurities dis- 
appear in the hands of one who has the dramatic insight 
or instinct to render them according to their intention. 
They never were meant for the sofa, they were meant 
to be thoroughly studied. They never were meant for 
thought or feeling alone, but for both. They were meant 
to be studied and felt by the whole man. 

On the other hand, the power to render a beautiful 
little lyric of the language without declamation, without 
rant, is one of the rarest and one of the most important 
attainments. It must ever be a fundamental step in the 
development of any kind of delivery. And yet, strange 
to say, in reading-books few lyrics can be found. Most 
of the selections or so-called Readings contain the very 
poorest of literature. The reason for this is, that elocu- 
tion has been concerned with the mere study of external, 
mechanical action, and not with the spirit. A lyric is 
subjective and ordinary elocution is objective. It has 
been concerned with the body of language, and not with 
the soul. Histrionic art is ever supposed to be the chief 
aid for the interpretation of the best literature. What a 
miserable failure it becomes when devoted to the poorest 
and weakest. The contempt which has been heaped 
upon it of late is no more than just. Elocutionary 
rendering of any kind, when concerned with the weakest 



378 Tradition. 

in literature, becomes insipid, enervates the mind and 
taste of reader and hearer. The function of reproductive 
art is to make clear, and to extend the influence of the 
greatest, the most difficult and the most misunderstood 
and the most original art of a given age. Where repro- 
ductive art is concerned with the lowest, it is one of 
the worst of all servants of a vitiated taste and is a curse 
to any community. 

But, expression is not a mere reproductive art. There 
are some thimgs in connection with expression which 
require original work. A true reproductive artist of any 
kind seeks continually to produce original results ; other- 
wise he becomes weaker and weaker; at any rate, the 
reproductive artist ever seeks to keep himself in sympa- 
thy with the very highest and best creative art. There 
is ever danger of a reproductive art becoming artificial 
and mechanical; and this tendency is ever most manifest 
where reproductive art allies itself with what is lowest, 
and does not continually seek to keep abreast with the 
best and most creative art of the time. 

The study of expression and the study of literature 
must ever go hand in hand. The literature needs the 
expression to interpret it to the common mind, and 
expression needs the literature to give it subject and 
inspiration. 

The study of literature and the study of expression 
together, furnish the most profound study of man. A 
study of literature alone may help a man wonderfully, 
improve his taste and his judgment; but to get the best 
results out of literature, we must ever follow the law 
advanced by Comenius, that, "if we wish to learn any- 
thing we must do it ". It may not be necessary for us to 
write another play in order to appreciate one of Shakes- 
peare's, but we must be able to give a beauty to one that 



The Advance Needed. 379 

is already written ; we may execute it according to his 
ideals in another sphere of language. 

Above all, the work of educating the powers of expres- 
sion needs assistance. How little encouragement is given 
to teachers in this department of education. There are 
few colleges or educational institutions where teachers 
in this department stand side by side with the professors 
of other subjects. In all other departments of study 
men are given large salaries and every seventh year 
allowed to go to Europe for further study. Often before 
he begins his work he is sent away for a year or more 
of special preparation. But the poor elocutionist must 
piece out a small salary by private lessons, and deny him- 
self every comfort to steal away to study for greater 
advance in his work. In fact, as we look at the past 
hundred years and remember the temptation to make all 
elocution merely an amusement, when we. remember, also, 
all the sneers that have been thrown at it, the fact that 
speakers with wretched delivery excuse themselves by 
reproaching elocution, we wonder at the advance that it 
has made. 

As we look over the whole field of delivery, examine all 
the methods and hear all the criticism, we find that the 
word elocution has come to be used as a term belonging 
only to the mere mechanism of speech. One of our 
leading dramatic critics stated that Bernhardt's elocution 
was absolutely perfect, but he proceeded to criticize her 
acting. In fact, the term elocution has long since 
become limited to the mere mechanical actions of speech, 
or to the mechanical method of developing delivery. 

If elocution, therefore, has come to mean only the 
physical side of delivery or to refer only to the technical 
modes of execution, implying that the problem is merely 
a mechanical one, is it not well that another word should 



380 Tradition. 

be used to express this broader and deeper method of 
developing delivery which we have found to be necessary ? 

A leading college president once said, "You must 
redeem the word elocution from the mechanical views 
concerning it, instead of calling your work by a new 
name." But words have a history, and it is very hard to 
interfere with the tendencies of words to certain mean- 
ings. The word elocution has come to be so universally 
applied to mechanical methods, that it seems impos- 
sible to make it mean anything else to the minds of 
the majority. A new thing, a new mode or method is 
ever expected to have a new name. Let us therefore call 
the method here advocated, expression. Then those who 
believe in the one-sided and merely mechanical method 
can call their work by their own beloved name, elocution ; 
and those who believe in the deeper and broader work, 
including training for cause, means and effect in delivery, 
can be known as teachers of expression. 

The difference, then, between the two systems will 
be clearly drawn. Elocution will mean the mechanical 
actions of speech or the mode of developing delivery by 
working merely upon technical effects. While on the 
other hand, expression will mean the study of causes and 
means as well as effects, and tracing faults to the action 
of the mind, securing control over the body and all its 
agents and actions as a means of revealing the man's 
thought and manifesting the deepest emotions of his soul. 
While the one method will consider a part of the facts of 
delivery, the other will study the whole man and will ever 
contend that it is the "soul that must speak". 

Elocution will be considered as a representative art, 
while expression will be regarded as both representative 
and manifestive, with the manifestive ever transcendent 
in proportion to the ideal character of the art. Elocution 



The Advance Needed. 381 

will be concerned merely with the signs of emotion, will 
seek to make all conscious and deliberative, and will be 
represented by such teachers as the one who said that 
unless a student got "a certain inflection for a certain 
sentence in a certain way he should not speak at com- 
mencement". Or by a teacher who has a student sit 
without making a tone and merely thinking an imaginary 
tone in the top of the head. Expression will deal with 
the action of the mind, will strive to get men to think, 
will endeavor to arouse an idea in the soul which shall 
stimulate emotion and the fundamental causes which will 
spontaneously manifest experience with all the plenitude 
of nature. While one will endeavor to make all delibera- 
tive, and make all knowledge center upon the proper 
modes of delivery, the other will train and attune the body, 
will study the great principles of universal art and of 
nature, and will endeavor to translate all knowledge into 
instinct, that the man in all good speaking may be free 
from the mechanical shackles of artificial rules. One art 
will be seen to grow more and more conventional, more 
and more governed by mere authority ; the other will be 
seen to partake of the elements of all the other forms of 
art and keep pace with their highest advances. 

The one will endeavor to form rules which will be con- 
sciously obeyed ; the other will seek into the great pro- 
cesses of nature for universal laws that a trained body 
and soul ever unconsciously obey. The one will be 
concerned with technical expedients ; the other will be 
concerned with the whole mind and body of the human 
being. The one will ever be plucking away that which is 
imperfect ; the other will be ever endeavoring to quicken 
the spirit that lies beneath and causes all external modes 
of manifestation. In other words, a teacher of the one 
art will be ever seeking to find faults and to adopt such 



382 Tradition. 

expedients as will correct these faults. A teacher of the 
other will ever be seeking to find the fundamental needs 
of the man, to train the voice and body and all the powers 
of the soul into harmonious co-ordination — will ever 
seek to trace the fault to the fundamental cause, and will 
labor consciously and unconsciously to remove that cause. 
The key-note of one method will be training, that of the 
other mechanical rules. The one will endeavor to secure 
consciousness of detail and so displace consciousness from 
its normal center ; the other will be ever endeavoring to 
center the consciousness of the man upon his ideas and 
thought, upon the images of his soul which ' are intended 
by nature to furnish the stimulus to every emotion. One 
method will endeavor to make all voluntary and con- 
scious ; the other will endeavor to apply such exercises 
as will co-ordinate the unconscious with the conscious, 
the involuntary with the voluntary. The one will be 
concerned with what is external and accidental, will ever 
make this an end ; while the other will use exercises and 
training as a means to attune body and soul to the end of 
manifesting the activity of the soul. 

Expression will ever be found saying that all passion, 
at least all poble passion, can be manifested by modula- 
tion of pure tone; while elocution will be contending for 
throatiness, huskiness and all the train of vocal imper- 
fections as a means of manifesting the deeper and even 
the nobler thoughts of literature; and while thus mak- 
ing no distinction between the abnormal and the normal, 
will be found to degrade the art more and more to a 
rendering of the poorest and worst literature. Expres- 
sion will ever be found studying the great laws of educa- 
tion, the fundamental principles that develop all a man's 
faculties, and will endeavor to seek to understand the 
fundamental excellences of every method of training and 



The Advance Needed. 383 

mode of advancing the human being; while the other, 
ever blinded by merely looking at the outside, will gauge 
all by a little, narrow system, and will tend to dwarf the 
infinite variety of nature to a dreary monotony by a 
mechanical and artificial mode of rendering. 

If the problem of delivery and the hints that nature 
furnishes as to methods of meeting it, is compared with 
the traditional elocutionary systems, we find that the 
methods usually adopted are one-sided, mechanical and 
artificial. They have only dealt with external faults and 
not with the deeper and the real needs of delivery. Each 
system has been built upon some one fact and exagger- 
ated in one direction, to the exclusion of other truths 
equally important. The advance that needs to be made 
is the application of the broadest scientific method to the 
observation of the facts, a higher study of the relation of 
expression to art, and above all, a deeper study of the 
action of the mind in expression, that the most funda- 
mental causes of faults may be corrected, and the highest 
laws of education be obeyed. The facts of the body and 
the voice must also be carefully investigated, and a sci- 
ence of training formulated, with thorough methods for 
the development of every part of the organism to the 
highest efficiency. Attention to artificial expedients to 
the neglect of true training, must be corrected, and a 
thorough study given to all the elements of expression, 
so as to secure a broader and more harmonious develop- 
ment of the whole man. 

There must especially be more attention to the normal 
actions of man's faculties and powers, and greater rever- 
ence for nature. The almost universal tendency in 
elocution to change unconscious actions to conscious, or 
to neglect them altogether, needs reform. What nature 



3 84 Tradition. 

meant to be conscious and what she intended to be 
unconscious, must each be developed according to its 
peculiar nature. The true elements of expression in the 
human being must also be studied, and the subjective or 
manifestive which have been entirely overlooked must be 
developed. The whole artistic nature as revealed in all 
forms of art must be understood by the teacher, that he 
may feel their relations to the most fundamental and nat- 
ural modes of expression, so as to develop delivery to 
the highest possible efficiency. 



IV. 



JJome Qppticationz. 

. . . . Instinctive art, 
Must fumble for the whole, once fixing on a part, 
However poor surpass the fragment, and aspire 
To reconstruct the ultimate entire." 



Browning. 



" Art is nature made by man 
To man the interpreter of God." 



— Owen Meredith. 



XXII. 

FUNCTION OF EXPRESSION IN EDUCATION. 

To know the truth it is necessary to do the truth. —Matidsley. 

Has the development of expression anything to do 
with general education, or is it merely for the training of 
speakers, readers or actors ? Is it merely for the pur- 
pose of developing an ornamental accomplishment, or is 
it a vital part of the development of the faculties and 
powers of the human soul ? 

In a practical age like this, however clearly we may 
unfold theories and principles, men will still ask, "What 
is the use ? Granting that such results can be attained, 
what advantage are they to the race?" There is a com- 
mon idea that such work is only for a few specialists. 
When a man is going to be an actor or a public reader, 
then it is well enough for him to pay attention to such 
studies and enter into such training. Possibly, also, if 
a man wishes to become a public speaker a very little 
time might be devoted to it in order to enable him to 
understand his faults ; but such studies form no part of 
general education. According to this view they are only 
an ornamental branch, like dancing, or possibly they 
form a very unworthy part of physical training. The 
aim of training is to develop health and strength ; but to 
improve the voice is of no earthly value, except, possibly, 
to a singer or to one who wishes to make an exhibition of 
himself. Possibly, also, it might be well for consump- 
tives to engage in such work so as to develop their lungs 
to counteract the disease, but the work is essentially 
physical, and has nothing to do with the mind. 



388 Application. 

A few years ago, a petition for vocal training, signed by 
many teachers in the public schools of Boston, was before 
the Legislature of Massachusetts, and one of our learned 
mis-representatives spoke against it. He said that vocal 
training or elocution was a mere ornamental branch of 
education, and should not be introduced into our public 
schools ; that it stood in the same relation to schools as 
dancing, and that while it might be a very good thing to 
have all our teachers taught to dance, yet such accom- 
plishments were foreign to education ; and the training 
of the voices of teachers and children belonged to exactly 
the same category, and had nothing to do with true 
development. 

While it may be granted that work in expression has a 
relationship to art and that there is a professional train- 
ing connected with it of very great importance, yet such 
work is not a mere ornamental accomplishment, but 
belongs to universal education. It has an application to 
all life and the development of all character. It has a 
vital relation to the harmonious growth of the soul and is 
vitally necessary to happiness and must be a part of the 
development of the powers of every human being. 

Whatever may be our understanding of the nature of 
education, whether as the " actualization of an ideal", as 
the "development of the possibilities of the race in the 
individual", as the "process of bringing such objects 
before the mind as will stimulate spontaneous activity ", 
as the "discipline of man's powers and the attainment of 
skill in execution", or "as the development of character" 
or even the very lowest conception, namely, "the acquire- 
of knowledge", expression must play a most essential 
part. Education may be considered as having two sides ; 
all man's faculties are concerned with taking or giving, or 
both. The greatness of the human soul is seen in its 



Function of Expression in Education. 389 

possibility of reception and the possibility of revealing its 
possessions to others. 

Few would say at the present time that the mere 
acquirement of knowledge can achieve the ends of edu- 
cation. Although in all our schools much of the time is 
devoted to this end, and an exaggerated estimate placed 
upon getting information, when we come to consider the 
discipline of the powers of man, we find that the taking 
of truth, the comprehension of truth, when not followed 
by an endeavor to manifest the truth, does not train these 
powers to their greatest efficiency. Expression is abso- 
lutely necessary to the proper development of the new 
education. It is one of the most important character- 
istics. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and 
more difficult. It requires a different action of the facul- 
ties of the mind. The action of the mind in receiving 
truth may be merely analytical, the giving of truth 
requires a more or less perfect co-ordination and co-oper- 
ation of all the powers of the mind. Consequently, while 
an endeavor to comprehend truth may discipline the 
powers, may quicken the activity of the individual facul- 
ties, expression brings these powers and faculties into 
harmonious co-operation with each other. A mind that 
merely receives becomes a kind of educational sponge, 
a Dominie Sampson, a useless appendage to society. 
Expression naturally follows impression. Exhalation ot 
breath after inhalation is not more necessary to life than 
the endeavor of the mind to give what it receives, is nec- 
essary to vigor of mind. The whole process of education 
is concerned with the development or co-ordination of 
these two processes. 

Men, according to their different views of education, 
emphasize either one or the other of these two processes. 
Carlyle said that all education was learning to read. 



390 Application. 

Taken in its broadest sense this is true. An educated 
man is known by his power to glean most quickly the 
fundamental ideas of books. Carlyle himself is said to 
have averaged eight volumes a day. Shakespeare was 
great because he was preeminently able to read the 
depths of the human soul. He had the power of insight 
into the motives and dispositions of men as no one has 
ever had before or since. Wordsworth was great because 
of his power to read nature, his insight into her most 
delicate beauty. He was not one to whom " A primrose 
by the river's brim, a yellow primrose was to him, and it 
was nothing more"; but to him "A violet by a mossy 
stone, half hidden from the eye," was "fair as a star 
when only one is shining in the sky." Everywhere he 
shows to us a power of penetration into the most delicate 
elements of nature's loveliness and beauty. Browning, of 
all the poets of our present age is the one who has been 
able to see deepest into the essential elements and funda- 
mental needs of our life, and for this power of insight he 
is loved and honored as the poet who makes us think. 
Thus, insight, the power to receive, the power to pene- 
trate and take from the things about us, the books, the 
men, the trees, the rocks and hills, is the glory of the 
artist, the orator or the man. But what men see, even 
what the greatest soul may conceive, is useless unless put 
into form. The ideas are mere visions without local 
habitation or a name, unless they can be embodied in 
some form of expression. 

Thus there is something more. Shakespeare is not only 
great for his insight, but on account of his art. Words- 
worth's insight into the delicacy and simplicity of nature 
led him to adopt simple words for the manifestation of 
that insight. There is not only impression as a process 
of education, but expression. The soul is not only disci- 



Function of Expression in Education. 391 

plined by taking, but disciplined also by giving. If all 
education is primarily dependent upon exercising the 
human powers, then it can be seen at once that these two 
phases of education are complementary. Thus the soul 
must not only be disciplined to take but to give. " Read- 
ing makes the full man, conversation the ready man and 
writing the correct man," said Bacon. Taking these 
three aims as Bacon's ideal of education, we find that the 
first, which refers to the reception of truth, is universally 
recognized, but the other two, which refer to expression, 
are almost entirely neglected. 

Besides, acquirement may not of itself discipline men's 
faculties. Expression requires more active use of man's 
powers. At least, it is as much concerned with the disci- 
pline of man's powers as reception. Men can not become 
fully cultured, can not become practical, can not use their 
knowledge for the proper influencing of their fellow-men 
without discipline of the powers of expression as well as 
the powers of reception. 

Emphasis of practical execution in education has 
grown more and more marked in modern days. Emerson 
called attention to the subject fifty years ago, and 
caused a great change in the education of our country, 
and has more or less opened the way for the manual 
schools of our day. Mere reception of information by 
the mind without execution is not the highest aim of 
education ; man's mind may grow, but his character does 
not. "To know may be first, but it is only by doing," 
that is, by execution according to knowledge that knowl- 
edge comes into being and character is developed. Just 
here is the evil tendency in education against which all 
great reforms have been directed. Breadth of grasp, 
skill in execution, harmony of the faculties of the man, 
such as will make him master of all the situations of life v 



392 Application. 

and not mere acquirement of information has been the 
motto of every reformer for three hundred years. 

There has been much discussion in recent years on the 
comparative merits of literary and scientific training. 
Mr. Huxley has discussed the advantages of science and 
Mr. Matthew Arnold fought for literature and literary 
training. But is not the problem a deeper one? Is not 
the real antithesis between scientific education and 
artistic education ; between the training of individual fac- 
ulties in the development of specialists and the harmoni- 
ous development of all the faculties of the mind in their 
normal relation to each other, and in response to the 
spontaneous desire for creative activity generated by the 
true assimilation of knowledge ; between the discipline 
to the mind received from the acquirement of knowledge 
of the laws and principles of nature and the development 
received from the endeavor to embody the conceptions of 
the human mind in accordance with the processes of 
nature in some form of art ? Even granting that the 
artistic has to do merely with enjoyment and happiness, 
still it is man's duty to be happy. But this is too low an 
estimate of the functions of art. It has been well said 
that we do not see things as they are, but as we are our- 
selves. Every man looks through the eyes of his preju- 
dices, of his preconceived notions. Hence, it is the most 
difficult thing in the world to broaden a man so that he 
will realize truth as other men see it. Breadth of view is 
ever one result of artistic training. Without the spirit of 
art, men are narrow and prejudiced ; each one works on 
in his own narrow groove. It is the function of art and 
of the artistic in education to furnish man a means by 
which he can see the embodiment of what other men 
conceive to be the truth of life and nature. As a man 
looks at a landscape it may or may not leave any vivid 



Function of Expression in Education. 393 

impression of its beauty, but let him look at a painter's 
interpretation of it, and he is led to wonder if that is the 
artist's understanding of the scene. He goes back to 
nature with quickened attention and a wider view. So 
also, the ideal in every man's heart of the Christ is 
elevated and quickened by the struggle of great artists to 
embody their conceptions of the Master. Art is thus, 
a means of communion, deeper and more adequate than 
language; for art may "do the thing shall breed the 
thought, nor wrong the thought missing the mediate 
word." 

The artistic faculties of man need, then, to be trained 
to awaken deeper love for nature and human character, 
and to stimulate and strengthen the higher and nobler 
emotions of the soul and to make the man happier and 
better. But this is not all ; the artistic faculties of man 
need to be developed to make him practical rather than 
theoretical ; to give him the power of execution, because 
until he is able to execute in some form what he sees and 
feels, however carefully he may be taught, "The truth 
by when it reaches him looks false nor recognized by 
whom it left." Thus artistic training is not concerned 
merely with the emotions and emotional powers, but is of 
vital importance in quickening those powers which are 
most intimately concerned with the adequate compre- 
hension of the fundamental facts of nature and human 
life, and the ability to realize truth. It is, of course, not 
meant that artistic education should supersede the 
scientific ; the two are, in fact, co-ordinate ; one without 
the other will ever be incomplete ; but the tendency at 
the present time in the education of the child is to 
neglect the artistic element. 

The most effective mode of cultivating the artistic 
faculty is through expression. Art, as we have seen, is 



394 Application. 

ever directly derived from vocal and pantomimic expres- 
sion, or, at least, is very intimately connected with the 
natural languages. Expression is, in fact, the most direct 
work of these faculties and powers. If they are to be 
put into action this is the simplest and most direct mode 
of exercising them ; it does not consist in the use of a 
mechanical chisel, brush or instrument, but in the proper 
use of the man's own body for the revelation of his soul. 

Froebel said that all education was emancipation ; if 
so, a study of expression affords one of the most effective 
means of removing all repression. In some of our 
schools there is an entire repression of all emotion. In 
studying literature the suggestion is given not to have 
any emotion but simply to bring out the thought. The 
effect of such repression is to cause one-sidedness and 
constriction. It might as well be said that one side of 
a tree could be completely fettered, tied up and kept 
from growing, and that the tree would grow symmetrically. 
Thought and emotion are two phases of man's nature. 
They are co-essential parts of human experience. The 
whole soul is a unity and must unfold in all directions. 

Expression tests whether the whole man acts in unity 
or not. A man may be very one-sided and be a great sci- 
entist, but expression more than any other aspect of edu- 
cation requires harmony of all the powers of the man, and 
tests their unity of action. The creative energies of the 
man, especially the imaginative, the instincts and intui- 
tions are quickened into life. The sympathies, emotions 
and passions are awakened and brought into unity and 
harmony, co-ordinated under proper control of will. 
Besides, work in expression tests the normal action of all 
the faculties and powers of the man, and brings to the 
surface one-sidedness in all psychic action and the effects 
of evil habits. To develop the highest power in expres- 



Function of Expression in Education. 395 

sion abnormal traits of character must be corrected, and 
all the powers be brought into simultaneous co-operation. 
Wherever one faculty or power has an exaggerated action 
the effect will be seen at once in expression. Thus if 
harmony is the highest aim of education, an idea which is 
as old as Protagoras, if not older, any one can see that 
in an act of true expression, the faculties of the mind are 
brought into more direct co-ordination than in any other 
educative exercise. There can be no perfect expression 
without the co-ordination of the most antithetic powers, 
such as those of thought and passion ; no form of educa- 
tion demands more powers and agents to be brought 
under control of will. Hegel defined a perfect man as 
one whose emotion and thought are balanced by will ; the 
power of expression not only develops the power to think 
and' to think more logically, and to think upon the feet, 
to create a living picture and scene, and to feel a response 
in the depths of our nature, but such exercise causes a 
union of this thought and feeling, and develops control 
over all. 

Work in expression disciplines man's will. It aids in 
bringing all emotion and passion, every faculty and agent, 
under control. Knowledge may be in possession of 
memory, understanding or will. Knowledge is not truly 
in possession of man until it is under control of his will. 
Expression gives man power, not only to understand 
truth but to wield truth; not merely to apprehend, but to 
use knowledge. It not only quickens the power of sub- 
jective apprehension, but enables the man to reveal 
thought and emotion so as to move his fellow-man. In 
the work of acquiring knowledge a single power or faculty 
of the mind may be unduly exercised and the man may 
become more or less unbalanced. But expression calls 
for a co-ordination of all the faculties and powers of the 



396 Application. 

mind. It is the most adequate test of one-sidedness in 
the power of man ; for it must cause each and every 
faculty to act, to act decidedly, to act vigorously, and all 
to act in co-operation with each other toward the accom- 
plishment of a common end. 

Training for expression must, therefore, form a part of 
education, for true work in expression is the most direct 
means of accomplishing some of the highest aims of 
human development. That work in expression belongs 
to education, is thus proved by the nature of education 
itself. Not only does expression belong to education but 
all progress and reform in education from time immemo- 
rial, directly or indirectly, have lain along the line of 
expression, from Rousseau's emphasis of nature as 
opposed to conventionality, Comenius' founding all edu- 
cation upon the processes of nature's growth, Pestalozzi's 
"things, not their signs," Froebel's principle of using 
objects to " arouse the faculties of the mind to sponta- 
neous activity," down to the natural methods of teaching 
language and the principles contended for in our manual 
schools. The development of expression gives man 
possession of his faculties and powers, enables him to 
discharge his functions more effectively in relation to his 
fellow-men, and in every way makes him more of a man. 

It is not meant, of course, to include in work for the de- 
velopment of delivery, all the executive or practical side of 
education. There are other means of manifestation, such 
as manual dexterity and writing ; but it can be seen that 
expression is one of the most fundamental, that it begins 
in earliest childhood, in the very first efforts of the mind 
to act, and that it ceases only with life ; that it extends 
through all stages of education, from the cradle to the 
college, from the Kindergarten to the professional school. 
Not only so, it furnishes also a practical means which is 



Function of Expression in hducation. 397 

most simple and most fundamental for developing the 
faculties and powers of the mind, which lie at the basis of 
all literary training. 

To enter into a more specific study of the function 
that expression discharges in education, it develops facul- 
ties too often neglected. In all our common methods of 
education there is a universal tendency to neglect the 
imagination. This faculty, which is most alive in the 
little child, in our ordinary schools is often dwarfed and 
fettered. Expression when rightly studied, from the very 
first day that the child enters school until the young man 
leaves college, is the most important means of stimulating 
this faculty. Imagination is the fundamental element of 
dramatic instinct or power to see into the souls of other 
men, to look through other eyes upon nature and man ; 
to see things as a Greek, as a German sees them, a power 
that enables the soul to rise out of a narrow groove to 
the highest standpoint of the race, a power which is the 
basis of success in nearly all occupations. 

Again, the work in expression develops sympathy and 
the feelings. It is a strange fact that the power of 
passion is despised and its training ignored, and yet the 
impulses and motives of human life, all its happiness, 
depend upon the relation of emotion and passion to the 
will. In the struggle to manifest the spirit of the best 
literature, the feelings and passions common to human 
nature are trained to respond to intelligent purpose and 
developed out of the domain of the appetites. 

Again, it is the most direct and immediate mode of 
stimulating taste, especially taste for literature, for poetry, 
for that which is most delicate and beautiful in art and 
nature. It is true a taste for the poorest in literature 
has often been fostered, but the power of bad training to 
pervert is only a proof of the power of the right kind of 



398 Application. 

training to ennoble and elevate. This perversion shows 
how closely connected expression is with the emotions 
and artistic faculties, the source and fountain-head of taste 
.and even moral character. This has been more or less 
acknowledged in all time from Quintillian, who defined 
oratory as "the good man speaking well", to Dr. Phillips 
Brooks, who defines speaking as the "presentation of 
truth by personality ". 

Again, it secures the development of philosophic 
memory rather than mere verbal memory. Of all the 
faults in education the mere training of verbal memory 
is one of the worst. When the intellect merely appre- 
hends the signs of things rather than the things them- 
selves, the whole mind is superficialized, and the deeper 
powers of feeling and imaginative activity which assimi- 
late truth, are rendered dormant, and no co-ordinate 
experience is awakened. But that there can be no 
expression from mere words or parrot-like repetition of 
signs can be seen at once. The fundamental character- 
istic of all noble expression is that the mind must realize 
ideas. Thought must ever be united to experience, or 
the voice will be cold and hard in spite of all elocutionary 
tricks. Expression is only a process of thinking aloud 
and a lack of feeling, a lack of co-ordination of all the 
faculties of the mind in expression reveal in many ways 
the mere repetition of words. Thus the teacher has a 
perfect clue by which he can distinguish the mere mem- 
ory of words and signs from the true memory of ideas. 
In fact, vocal expression furnishes the most perfect train- 
ing for the imagination and philosophic memory. 

Again, expression educates the intuitive action of the 
mind. It stimulates conception, and the power of crea- 
tion causes the student to trust his instincts, centers his 
consciousness in relation to all knowledge and to all 



Function of Expression in Education. 399 

nature ; makes him feel that his own soul is the center of 
feeling, thought and light. Such study awakens rever- 
ence in the soul for its own nature. 

The greatest need at the present time is assimilation ; 
books are multiplied by the million, newspapers are infi- 
nite, people are continually reading, skimming over facts ; 
there is, however, little assimilation. We no longer 
take the advice of great thinkers who tell us that "we 
must eat a book," not merely taste it, but "eat and digest 
it". Men skim over great poems, and if the thought 
is too deep, as in Browning, to be taken at a glance 
by shallow, superficial attention, the newspaper, where 
one idea is extended over a column, is taken up in pref- 
erence. The poem is pronounced dull and without 
meaning. To render a poem according to the true prin- 
ciples of art, means to give its emotions, to render its 
thought, to render its fundamental idea and its spirit. 
To give a student a poem to study without any explana- 
tions regarding it, and so compel him to struggle to find 
the logical continuity of ideas, to realize the associated 
experience and to give its emotion, will train his taste and 
insight into the best artistic spirit, better than a long 
course of lectures upon English literature, and will 
furnish a means of testing, if not of developing, the 
mind's power of assimilating truth. 

Such work furnishes the teacher indirectly the best 
means of judging the real personality of his pupils, the 
real relationship of the student toward truth. The great 
need of education, then, is not merely to acquire knowl- 
edge, but to cause that knowledge to be assimilated, to 
carry it into the depths of man's experience and charac- 
ter and to help the student into a right relation to truth. 
With all our public speakers this assimilation of knowl- 
edge by the personality of the man is the chief difficulty. 



4-00 Application. 

The knowledge of the man is too often a mere aggre- 
gation. It has not been assimilated by experience. As 
his thought comes to us it does not come from the 
circulation and life-blood of the soul. The study of 
expression provides a remedy. 

Here we have the solution of the great problem of the 
study of English in our schools. The common methods 
of studying English are too verbal. Many of our authors 
are studied as dry fossils. The plays of Shakespeare are 
dissected, analyzed and studied as words and forms. 
This process may be of some advantage in studying 
language, but it is not studying Shakespeare ; it is not 
studying art ; above all, such work never develops the 
artistic faculties of the man, nor does it create a love of 
literature in the minds of students. 

What needs to be done in the study of English is to 
rouse the faculties of the mind which are concerned in 
literary production. The imagination and the sympa- 
thies need to be awakened, all the creative faculties 
of the mind must be quickened and put into action. All 
this can be done in the study of expression. 

Of course, some teachers of rhetoric will laugh at the 
idea of vocal expression as a means of developing style, 
but such results have been accomplished again and again. 
The whole artistic delivery, flexibility of the voice and 
ease of body, and even style in the verbal sense have 
not only been improved, but developed and even com- 
pletely reformed, by the true study and rendering of the 
best authors and the speaking necessary in expressive 
training. The reason for this is plain. In the study of 
expression according to the method outlined, the mind is 
trained to vividly realize ideas and to view them success- 
ively in logical order. It has been shown by Mr. Walter 
Pater in his essay on Style that it is the very first prin- 



Function of Expression in Education. 401 

ciple of all true style that the words used shall be in 
correspondence with the picture of the mind. The 
method here evolved for the development of vocal expres- 
sion is founded upon the same principle. All delivery is 
traced to the pictures in the mind as the stimulus and 
impulse which is to determine everything. To render 
the best literature according to this method develops the 
power to use any means of manifestation, whether tones 
or words, because it develops the instinct of correspond- 
ence between the pictures of the mind and any mode of 
expression. In mere writing it is rather more difficult 
for a teacher to see into the action of the mind and test 
the correspondence of the expression to the pictures ; but 
in vocal expression, where the means used are natural 
rather than conventional, and respond spontaneously to 
the mental picture, when properly trained, it becomes 
very easy. A dull imagination can be most directly 
quickened by such a course. And not only so, but a 
study of the action of the mind leads to a rejection 
of mere useless words. It develops insight into fun- 
damentals. The requisite of all oratory, all writing of 
every kind, is this power of insight into essential ele- 
ments. No speaker is a speaker without it, no writer is 
a writer without it. Here is the primal source of all 
artistic power in every sphere. 

In short, as has been maintained again and again in 
these pages, expression carries the human mind to the 
fountain-head of artistic endeavor. In expression we have 
the earliest struggle for art whether in the race or in the 
individual, and it furnishes the most immediate trans- 
parency of the action of the artistic faculties, or of all 
the faculties of the mind acting in an artistic direction. 
Thus we can see that the use of his native tongue by any 
man is closely connected with his dramatic instinct. 



402 Application. 

Hence, histrionic, expression, the most immediate and 
direct application of the endeavor to make form corre- 
spond with a picture of the mind, is fundamentally 
necessary to the development and education of the human 
being. Literature is a department of art and all the 
work for the mastery of one's own native tongue, if done 
rightly, is according to the principles of expression, and 
these principles are most easily understood in their sim- 
plest and most natural embodiment — vocal expression. 
Each art ought ever to be studied by going to the 
fountain-head of all art for a mastery of the principles. 
All the faculties concerned in creating must be brought 
into exercise before any art can awaken interest and love. 
Contemplation of any art tends to do this of itself, but 
active execution leads to a deeper understanding and 
appreciation of subtle beauties. The proper rendering of 
the best literature in vocal expression is one of the most 
fundamental means of discovering the beauties of an 
author. 

The study of literature and so-called English according 
to the ordinary methods is among the most mechanical 
of all work in education, * Mere rules are laid down, 
and practice, so far as any is found, is mechanical 
and perfunctory. Instead of the mind of the student 
being trained to find the real spirit, instead of the imag- 
ination being stimulated to create vivid pictures of the 
scenes and to render the feeling of authors, all attention 
is devoted to cold analysis, which dulls all feeling and 
spontaneous love of the author. Rhetoric is studied as 
a collection of facts and rules. There is little or no 
endeavor to stimulate the creative faculties of the man. 
The whole subject of rhetoric is presented objectively, 
language and figures are considered as mere objects of 
knowledge. In fact, in taking up the subject of invention 



Function of Expression in Education. 403 

even here mere forms are studied and there is no indi- 
cation of stimulating the man from within, in a sugges- 
tion of a trained personality using form freely, but 
with exact truth and correspondence with the thought. 
Instead of endeavoring to stimulate the action of the 
faculties which cause figurative language, instead of 
securing imaginative action of the mind, figures are 
named and examples more or less hackneyed are given 
for analysis. Such work discourages rather than stimu- 
lates the student to write. This explains why some of 
the best teachers of English discard a theoretic study of 
rhetoric altogether. The true method of training in 
written expression, as in vocal, must be to stimulate from 
within. The creative faculties must themselves be 
aroused and forms compared with the figures existing in 
the mind. If a young student is made to recite from a 
great author he is made to think over again the success- 
ive ideas in relation to expression ; his imagination is 
thus quickened and his power of discriminating as to the 
power of words is unconsciously stimulated. He is thus 
trained to carry a succession of ideas in relation to the 
tones that manifest them. This, of course, cannot com- 
pensate for a higher and more analytic study of language 
and choice of words. There must be technical work in 
every art. But it is a beginning and a beginning in accord- 
ance with the methods of the most artistic of all peoples, 
the Greeks. It is a beginning in accordance with the 
great laws of education. The mind that thinks and feels 
must be awakened, the impulse to write must be stimu- 
lated. This must ever be the first step. The imagin- 
ation that paints must ever be stimulated before there is 
a more objective study of figurative language. There 
were figures long before they were named, and a mere 
study of figures will never stimulate the faculties for 



404 Application. 

their production except in the most mechanical and 
artificial way. Thus, a proper study and stimulation of 
the right action of the mind in reading and speaking 
will lead to a correct action of the mind in writing. As 
a child learns to talk before it can read or write, so it 
should Ije in the process of education. There must be 
an improvement in the child's conversational powers, 
before there can be improvement in its power to write. 
A child talks not for the sake of using words, but to say 
something. Of course, when the man chooses to become 
a speaker or a writer, then there must be greater work 
to attain special skill in the use of the special forms 
of language, but for the general purposes of education to 
prepare the man for success in either, attention must be 
given to both. Even he who is to become a speaker or a 
public reader or an actor will receive great assistance 
from the habit of close analysis secured in efforts to 
express thought in written form. In fact, it is absolutely 
necessary for the highest success. There are a few 
forms of art so near to the soul that a certain mastery of 
them is demanded for the development of the soul. 

The time may come when rhetoric and delivery will be 
studied as fundamentally connected as they were in the 
days of the Greeks, when true artistic results were accom- 
plished by educational processes. Our great artists, 
writers and speakers at the present day became such in 
spite of their education in English, not by its aid. 

Expression trains the power to see into the needs of 
other men, to be able to understand and appreciate 
the motives and actions of others. Some one has said 
that this is the fundamental need of every soul. The 
man who is able to help his fellow-men is he who is able 
to enter into the spirit and motives of his kind, who has, 
as it has been called, the dramatic instinct. How can 



Function of Expression in Education. 405 

this be educated without a direct study into the nature of 
the human heart, without a direct rendering in expression 
of the emotions and experience belonging to man ? A 
theoretic study of the great dramatic poets will do much, 
but can really only give a start. The necessity for this 
dramatic training is seen in every profession. The 
teacher must have it or he will not understand his pupil, 
the speaker must have it or he will never be able to under- 
stand his audience, and adapt his truth toward moulding 
them to nobler ideals. 

The study of expression gives men an understanding 
of human character, it gives a man an understanding of 
himself, it reveals to him the possibilities of his own 
nature, it stimulates and brings all his powers into simul- 
taneous and harmonious activity. It stimulates the ideal, 
it develops the taste and ennobles the imagination and all 
the artistic faculties. 

The study of expression develops simplicity and natu- 
ralness. It corrects and prevents all affectation on the 
part of students. It has been charged that the study of 
elocution is the most direct and effective means of devel- 
oping affectation. This is no doubt true when the method 
is a mechanical or an artificial one, when it is a mere 
study of signs independent of the action of the mind; 
but the true study of expression not only does not 
develop affectation, but is the most effective means of 
eradicating it. Men are often affected without knowing 
it, and the true study of expression is the most effective 
means of revealing this fact to the man. 

Again, the study of expression removes self-conscious- 
ness, whether that self-consciousness be an egotistic one 
or a self -depreciating one. It gives the over -confident 
student a truer understanding of himself, it gives the 
timid one a power to centralize the mind upon ideas and 



406 Application. 

removes confusion and embarrassment and gives him 
confidence to face his fellow-men. 

Expression develops careful observation of nature, 
leads the mind to study fundamentals, and brings the 
soul directly into contact with elemental truth. Every 
argument for manual schools, all the arguments for prac- 
tical education, apply to the fact that expression should 
have a place in universal education. 

Again, there are two recognized methods of studying the 
mind: by self-analysis or conventional authority as some 
think the method has become, and by the modern phys- 
iological method. Both are inadequate. Here we add a 
third, not as a substitute, but as a co-ordinate form to 
aid in practically testing the truth of the others. In fact, 
it is almost the only method of studying the faculties of 
the mind in action. Expression shows the workings of 
the human mind. We can render through the voice 
more emotions than are named in psychology. 

Expressive training serves as an aid to the practical 
application of the best methods of education. Great 
teachers make students work, they do not give them 
opinions. Expression can thus be used as a test of har- 
monious growth. It tests evil tendencies in students ; 
some students will be found to be reading one class of 
works, others another. One man will read only scientific 
works until his mind becomes cold and abstract ; he has 
no appreciation of poetry. The moment he tries to ren- 
der some form of literature this can be seen, and the 
teacher can prescribe works on imagination and poetry. 
Another reads only the superficial and sentimental poets, 
and he loses the logical faculty and becomes a dreamer. 
Such a student is utterly unable to read and manifest the 
antithetic power of Macaulay, he needs a good, strong 
diet of Carlyle and the great essayists, that the logical 



Function of Expression in Education. 407 

power of his mind may be strengthened and vigorous 
thinking awakened. As Bacon has said "Every defect 
of the mind may have a special receipt ". 

Thus, laying aside the great importance of expressive 
training in its own particular sphere, such as the soften- 
ing and training of the American voice, the development 
of the art of oratory, to serve as the guardian of liberty 
or as the means of advancing every great reform, of elevat- 
ing the arts of entertainment, we find that it has a vital 
relationship to the great problem of universal education, 
and is necessary to the development of the highest possi- 
bilities of the human being. We see this from the 
nature of education itself, from the nature of the human 
mind, from the relationship which it bears to artistic 
training; we see it from the fact that it develops those 
faculties and powers which are most concerned with the 
happiness and success of the individual. We see that it 
is of importance indirectly or as an assistant in other 
departments of education. We can see that a teacher 
through expression will be enabled to test the harmoni- 
ous development of students. It tests whether students 
have a possession of mere words or a grasp of essential 
ideas ; whether they have mere command of accidentals, 
or whether they have a possession of the fundamental ele- 
ments of truth. It aids also the student himself in that 
it develops philosophic memory rather than a mere verbal 
memory. It trains the logical faculties of the mind, it 
trains the imagination and creative faculties of the man 
so that his thoughts and ideas will not be uncertain and 
confused, but clear, distinct and adequate. 



XXIII. 
OFFICE OF A TEACHER OF EXPRESSION. 

We ought to inculcate all we possibly can by actions, and to say only what we cannot 
do. — Rousseau. 

It has now been shown that expression should form a 
part of universal education. No matter what profession 
a man may intend to follow, some form of expression is 
necessary to develop his faculties, especially his imagin- 
ation, and to bring all of his powers into harmony with 
each other ; to stimulate his appreciation of nature, litera- 
ture and art, and to give him insight into human nature 
and into his own life and character. It has also been 
shown that all reforms in education have a direct or an 
indirect relation to expression. In the development of 
every one such work is necessary to prevent mere aggre- 
gation or lack of assimilation, one-sidedness and a long 
train of imperfections. 

The question now arises whether this is the whole 
work of expression. If expression is so vital a part of 
universal education, then should it simply form a part 
of other studies, or should there be special attention to 
expression as a separate department of human develop- 
ment? In other words is it simply a phase, or is it a 
department of education ? Is there any use of a special 
teacher? Every teacher, if he is a true teacher, will 
know something of expression, and will be able to assist 
in this work. Many think, therefore, that it is simply a 
vital part of a general teacher's office, and that special 
teachers are only a hindrance. The reason assigned is, 
that they develop artificiality. Devoting themselves 
entirely to this specialty, they look more for special tact 
or skill, some mode of execution or power of imitation, 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 409 

and will place this as the fundamental element of expres- 
sion before all acquisition of knowledge or experience. 
Studying only manner, they forget the true nature of 
manner, and make it an end in itself. Devoting them- 
selves especially to delivery, they ignore all thinking and 
come to consider all delivery as a mere matter of the 
body and forget that it is as fundamentally an act of 
mind as is the reception of truth. 

There is an important element of truth in all these 
supposed objections, but if we examine more closely we 
find that the work of expression is both a phase and a 
department of education. So far as the simple develop- 
ment of the soul in childhood is concerned it belongs to 
the function of every teacher, but viewed in a profes- 
sional aspect in relation to the development of speakers 
and special teachers of expression, and the training of 
public readers and actors, or the eradication of special 
defects or even in advanced education of any kind, it is a 
special department of education demanding a special 
teacher specially trained in a special professional school 
with special equipment, peculiarly constructed buildings 
and adequate endowment. 

In the first place, such a specialization is along the line 
of progress in education. A division of labor is now 
made in education as well as in business. In the work of 
education in the higher schools and colleges, it is neces- 
sary, if each teacher is to do his best work, that he should 
do a certain kind of work. There is little trouble, in a 
college course in the co-ordination of a vast number of 
subjects, each under the direction of a specialist. If this 
is true in other departments of education, it must cer- 
tainly hold good in the work of expression. 

In expression, of all departments of education, a teacher 
must have special technical training. While his work is 



4 1 o Application. 

more general than any other in all education, yet it is 
also the most special. The voice as a physical instru- 
ment is the most delicate and the most difficult to train 
of any of the organs of the body. Diseases of the vocal 
organs are among the most subtle and the most difficult 
to deal with, and a great number of specialists in throat 
diseases are to be found in every city. So vocal training 
is the most difficult of all education. It is a notorious 
fact that there are fewer good teachers of voice than in 
any other department. In either the singing or the speak- 
ing voice this is true. Mistakes are made continually; 
voices are ruined every year. Faults of voice are so 
extremely subtle, that there must not only be a physiolog- 
ical and anatomical diagnosis ; there must also be deeper 
search into the emotions and conditions of the soul. The 
fundamental causes of faults of voice are found in the 
action of the mind upon the body. A wide experience, 
constant attention specially directed to a great variety of 
actions and conditions is necessary to enable the teacher 
to penetrate into the causes of the most common faults of 
voice. 

It is universally recognized that the physician needs 
long years of careful training, and in most States special 
laws are enacted to prevent one who has had no such 
training from setting himself up as qualified to treat 
diseases. And yet, strange to say, there is not the least 
hesitation on the part of the most ignorant, with little or 
no special preparation, to undertake to train the most 
subtle organism belonging to man, where there is 
greatest danger of malpractice; and people make no 
objection. In fact, in some parts of the country, a stu- 
dent who has taken a prize at some contest is often at 
once considered fit to teach elocution without any further 
preparation. In many advanced schools and colleges 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 41 r 

teachers who have failed in other departments are given 
elocution as a last resort, as that is not considered as 
requiring any special training. Some think they can 
attend a summer school for a few weeks or take a short 
course of private lessons and at once set themselves up 
as being able to teach. 

But if the principles unfolded in the present work are 
true, if such is the nature of delivery, if such are the 
dangers that meet the teacher on every side, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that there shall be thorough technical 
training, that the subject shall be taught by those who are 
specially and thoroughly prepared to meet the needs of 
the case. Unless this is done such work will be neg- 
lected and despised. Besides, more than in other studies, 
students must be inspired with its importance. Incom- 
petent students may fail in written examinations in other 
studies, but such tests are almost entirely wanting in the 
subject of expression. If a student takes no interest in 
his work he will do poorly in any department, but he will 
make an absolute failure in expression. Effective prac- 
tice must proceed from love of the work, and this can be 
inspired only by a teacher who himself loves the work, 
who can see to the depths of the minds of men and can 
make them realize their needs and possibilities. 

Again, expression should form a distinct department 
in advanced education, because it has a special function 
to discharge. It is entirely different from other depart- 
ments of education. Work in mathematics, work in the 
languages, work in psychology and in the sciences are 
all analytic or scientific in character. For this reason 
they are antithetic to work in expression, which is essen- 
tially synthethic and artistic. Work in scientific subjects 
calls for attention of the mind — calls simply for careful 
and exact thinking. Its highest end is nearly always 



412 Application. 

reached when the student understands the principles 
involved. But expression starts from this point. Knowl- 
edge of a subject is pre-supposed in expression. It is 
not only necessary to know ; expression calls for doing. 

For this reason this work must be arranged at a special 
time entirely distinct from scientific work. The class 
attitude must be different. The atmosphere in the class 
must be different from the atmosphere in a scientific 
class. A teacher must learn the art of awakening inter- 
est, arousing enthusiasm and stimulating emotion. He 
must have an atmosphere where feeling will be possible, 
and not be considered a disgrace. 

This same argument ought to apply to the study of all 
literature and English, and the failure to have adequate 
methods in teaching these is a proof of the principles 
involved. Students are often made to study English — a 
play of Shakespeare, for example — as if it were a mere 
stone or shell. No feeling is allowed. There is a con- 
tinual digging into the roots of all the words, until the 
student, when he gets through with the play, has no love 
for it. I have heard many students express a dislike for 
plays studied in this way at school. 

Again, this department is the best for the development 
of the imagination. Its very connection with other sub- 
jects, especially with English and with rhetoric, as has 
been shown, is a proof that it needs special emphasis. 
Every true teacher of English and every true teacher of 
rhetoric ought to recognize at once the truth that it is 
necessary to train the faculties that create figures, rather 
than to acquire a mere technical knowledge of figures ; 
that those powers which appreciate literature must be 
awakened before a genuine love can be born. Expression 
rightly taught more than all else, will awaken these 
faculties. 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 413 

Another very important argument is, that the work 
belongs to no other department of education. Among 
the Greeks it belonged to rhetorical study, but it has, in 
these days, become entirely divorced from that depart- 
ment of education. It would seem at first that it ought 
to be a part of the study of English, but it is found to be 
separate from that department. The study of literature 
is conducted mainly for the acquirement of facts ; for an 
understanding of etymology and the growth of English, 
and to acquire a vocabulary. This is very important, but 
it needs, as a complement, the work of expression. 

To illustrate, therefore, the function of a teacher of 
expression in a college : He is, first of all, a representative 
of the importance of doing, as well as of acquiring; of 
execution, rather than the mere development of the under- 
standing; of expression, as well as of impression. He 
must arouse the creative faculties of the mind. By hav- 
ing students speak extemporaneously, by having them 
recite, by having them read and by other exercises neces- 
sary to the work of expression he will be enabled to study 
the real possibilities of each member of his class. Hence, 
he will or should know their practical possibilities better 
than any other teacher in the college. Other teachers 
are engaged more upon specialties. They test a student's 
knowledge, they study subjects ; but the teacher of 
expression studies the man. By virtue of the very nature 
of his work he is brought face to face with personality. 
More than any other instructor he can find whether 
knowledge is merely taken into the head — merely taken 
into the memory. He can see whether the student has 
merely crammed, and can thus easily write out answers 
to questions and pass his examinations, or whether he 
has really assimilated and entered into positive possession 
of knowledge ; whether he has merely grown in knowl- 



414 Application. 

edge of facts, or whether his personality is growing by 
the truth it feeds upon. 

More than any other teacher will a true teacher of 
expression be enabled to see the advancement and har- 
monious growth of a student. He will be prepared, 
therefore, to give advice, and if he is the man he should 
be, his advice will be sought regarding lines of reading. 
When a student has no love for poetry, his imagination, 
however strong naturally, is slumbering. Every man 
needs this faculty, no matter in what department he is to 
labor or what profession he is to follow. 

Again, a teacher of expression can see whether a man 
is merely sentimental or emotional without thought; 
•whether he reads only emotional literature and has an 
utter lack of logic, or whether he has no feeling and 
emotion. Any such one-sidedness will be seen at once 
by the teacher of expression. And not only so, but he 
will trace such imperfections to their causes, and by 
suggestions and often by direct prescription of work he 
can furnish an adequate remedy, sometimes in his own 
department, often by recommending attention to studies 
in other departments. He can show the student by 
.special criticism the causes of his failures, analyzing his 
mind and indicating the lack of harmony in his develop- 
ment. The teacher of expression has definitely in his 
department the problem of harmony. The teacher of 
mathematics tries to emphasize his own department and 
exaggerates knowledge of mathematics. The teacher of 
Greek feels it his special duty to emphasize its import- 
ance, to make it interesting to students and to be sure 
that they are ^thoroughly posted in that language. But 
the teacher of expression looks at the man in his assimi- 
lation of all his studies, calls upon him to manifest his 
own personality, and looking at him in the act of produc- 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 415 

tion, in the act of thinking aloud, more than any other 
he is able to judge of the student's imperfections — of his 
departure from the normal — and more than any one else 
will be competent to advise the student in the arrange- 
ment of his electives for another year so as to emphasize 
those things which are especially needful. 

Thus a teacher of expression has an important indirect 
function to discharge. He will make the student more 
alive to the broader needs of culture. His influence will 
be felt by the student when reciting Latin, when demon- 
strating his problem in mathematics. The whole bearing 
of students toward each other, toward their class, toward 
their teachers, in all discussions will be affected by such 
a teacher. He will save students unconsciously and 
indirectly from falling into extravagant errors. The 
voices of college students are often hard. In fact, the 
class attitude and class tone in all our institutions of 
learning is very apt to be cold and without resonance. 
In a college where there is a teacher of expression, 
teachers in other departments can remind students that 
they seem to need vocal training when they can not be 
heard in class or make an egregious blunder in pronunci- 
ation or are awkward in bearing. Thus such a depart- 
ment tends to bring an atmosphere into the institution 
favorable to graceful bearing and artistic culture. 

Again, a teacher of expression, while his department is 
not directly connected with physical training, will yet be 
enabled to see by means of the revelations of the voice 
and body, the conditions of health. As is well known to 
all physicians, the voice is most sympathetically related 
to vitality. The moment any abnormal physical condition 
is present, the moment disease makes any attack, the 
voice will show it. The condition of the muscles, even 
of those far removed from the parts specially concerned 



4 1 6 Application. 

in the production of voice, has an influence over the tone, 
and one who has been thoroughly trained feels the whole 
man revealed in that tone, not only as to the harmony of 
mind, but as to harmony of body and the condition of 
vitality. 

Again, a vast number of students, the very best stu- 
dents, are nervous and embarrassed. It is a notorious 
fact that some students who stood highest in their classes 
do not stand highest in the actual world. Some have, 
therefore, falsely concluded that their education was of 
little use to them. But the fault here was not that they 
studied too hard, but on account of one-sidedness, of too 
great subjectivity, or it may be, because the artistic 
execution in their education did not keep pace with the 
accumulation of knowledge by the mind. As the lungs 
not only need to take in air, but to give it out, so the 
healthful mind must present truth, must manifest its 
relations to personality as well as secure information. 
The growth of the plant is not due merely to the amount 
of material that is heaped about it ; but depends upon 
the harmonious co-operation and assimilation of light, 
heat, soil, moisture and air. So the soul must grow from 
the co-ordination of all its elemental acts. Nay, further, 
as the soil may be made so rich as to kill the plant, so 
the mind by mere work in the aggregation of facts may 
stifle its own life and become dwarfed into a Toots or a 
Dominie Sampson. 

The progress in all education has ever been toward 
more work in practical execution. Even in the technical 
schools there is now less theory and more practical work, 
in chemistry less mere reading and more work in the 
laboratory, and everywhere less speculation and theorizing 
and more experiment and earnest endeavors to learn from 
objects themselves. 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 417 

Some of the functions of such a teacher, aside from 
what will be considered his real office, are the training of 
the voice, the development of grace and ease in the body, 
the removal of all awkwardness and stiffness, the develop- 
ment of a man's power to think upon his feet as well as 
at his desk ; in short, the improvement of the use of his 
whole speech and bearing in public and in private. But 
there are more general functions of as great importance. 
Studying the student in active execution, in a unity of 
his personality with his knowledge, he sees revealed 
before him all the peculiarities and necessities of the 
man's nature. Hence, his function is lifted in dignity 
above that of a mere specialist. 

If such is the function to be performed, what are some 
of the qualifications of a man to fill such an office ? It 
would seem at once, from the nature of the case, that he 
should be a broadly educated man, that, of all teachers 
in an institution, he should be selected with the most 
care ; and yet, what are the facts ? One college presi- 
dent says he only wants to hear a man read to know 
whether he will be a good teacher of elocution or not. 
When I once asked one of the most prominent college 
presidents if it was true, as reported, that his university 
employed the poorest man they could find to teach elo- 
cution in order to throw a slur upon the whole subject, 
he turned the question off with the remark, " We spend 
very little money upon it, at any rate." In short, the 
ordinary opinion regarding a teacher in this department 
is, that he need not be a thoroughly educated man ; he 
only needs a little technical skill, " a little ingenuity and 
artifice," as Mrs. Malaprop would say, to do such work 
even in a college. Again, persons planning to become 
teachers think very little study is necessary to prepare 
them for such an important work. A short course of 



4 1 8 Application. 

lessons, in their opinion, is sufficient. Some even look 
with contempt upon broader subjects and their con- 
nection with expression, when such are placed in the 
course of study to prepare them for the discharge of such 
an important office* in human education. 

Again, while it is known that in such a subject as this 
personality is brought into more intimate contact with 
personality than in any other department of education, 
and that there is thus, consciously or unconsciously, a 
greater influence wielded for good or for ill, yet there is 
a common opinion that in elocution you may expect a 
little departure from conventional standards. Nay, even 
more ; little attention was formerly paid to character in 
the selection of teachers. 

A teacher of expression must be a thoroughly devel- 
oped and widely-educated man — a man not only widely 
informed, but of true and deep instincts, because the 
subject he comes to teach is the most difficult of all. It 
is so many-sided, so tempting to a hobbyist. He is 
required to have a deeper insight into personality, a more 
profound knowledge of human nature and a broader 
understanding of the educational value of every subject 
in relation to personality. He must especially be thor- 
oughly posted in all advanced methods of education. 

Again, a teacher of expression must be an educated 
man because he must be able to penetrate into the deep- 
est needs of students. He must know something, there- 
fore, of all departments of knowledge, especially in their 
relation to education, that is to say, he must understand 
the effect upon personality of all subjects. If in con- 
ducting a class, for example, in extemporaneous speaking, 
he has a student who is illogical, who presents his 
thought at hap-hazard and without method, the teacher 
must be able to prescribe for this special need. Unless 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 419 

he, himself, has a thorough knowledge of the practical 
application of logic, how can he make an intelligent 
criticism ? How can he give the proper logical prescrip- 
tion, so to speak, for the need before him ? 

This breadth of culture, however, must be of a prac- 
tical kind. It must be artistic and literary, as well as 
scientific. There must be insight and true love for all 
literature and art. It has been shown that delivery is 
essentially a department of art. Without such a love of 
art and literature he can never love this work, he can 
never inspire students, he can never awaken the creative 
faculties of their minds. More than any other teacher, 
his knowledge needs to be translated into instinct. All 
his knowledge needs to be assimilated. He must have 
perfect control over himself. He has to give illustrations 
of all kinds, not that he is to teach by imitation, but he 
must lead; he must illustrate faults, he must illustrate 
differences between excellences and faults. He must 
stir up the artistic natures of men, and this can only 
be done, in many instances, by art. He must be envel- 
oped by an artistic atmosphere ; he needs not mere criti- 
cal knowledge, but thoroughly trained artistic power for 
execution. 

His powers of observation must be most thoroughly 
and carefully developed ; as the student stands before 
him to speak there will be a thousand aspects from which 
he can be viewed. He must have his faculties and sensi- 
bilities so trained, his dramatic instinct so developed, 
that he can see the subject exactly as the student sees it. 
He must not frame an ideal of his own and place it as a 
standard for another, but he must penetrate into the 
ideal of another. No man can succeed in such work as 
this without great dramatic instinct and broad sympathies. 
He comes more closely, probably, to the soul -life of stu- 



420 Application, 

dents than any other teacher. The very nature of his 
work, if it is successful, requires this. It is for this rea- 
son that there must be time for his work ; he must meet 
students a sufficient amount of time to be enabled to 
understand them and for them to understand him. He 
must also be a man of great magnetism. 

"Know thyself," was carved upon the ancient temple, 
and self-knowledge has been considered from the time 
of Socrates as the fundamental requisite of education, yet 
the fact remains that study of ourselves is the least 
interesting of all studies ; and especially that artistic 
work with our own poor voices and our own poor bodies 
as the technical means requires most resolution. A 
teacher who can make a class study themselves, who can 
stand before them not with a subject, but with personal 
specific criticism, that goes to the very depths of their 
nature and penetrates to their ideals, must have great 
imagination, sympathies and insight. 

So subtle and delicate is the work to be accomplished, 
that he must be a man of patience and perseverance. 
There is no mechanical instrument concerned, there is no 
mere building to be constructed or reconstructed, but all 
must be dependent upon nature's processes of growth. 

Of his special technical training, his thorough under- 
standing of the many habits of men — and this not 
only in their nature, their physiology, but in their possi- 
bilities and the principles underlying methods of training 
them, his thorough understanding of what is natural and 
what is unnatural, and of the peculiar nature of manner- 
isms it is not necessary to speak. 

If the function of a teacher is so important, we must 
at once recognize the importance of his preparation. 
How shall this preparation be given? It is of such a 
nature that it demands a preservation of traditions, a 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 421 

continuous history, a progressive development from age 
to age, constantly renewed study of the problem by a 
union of leading specialists. This can only be done 
through a special professional school for such teachers. 

The great cause of the lack of progress in this work, 
the cause of its failure to keep pace with the needs of 
the problem, has been the fact that there has been no 
such school where the best traditions could be preserved, 
and where the discoveries, the successive advances made 
by different teachers, could be given "a local habitation 
and name", where they could be tested and tried by 
experience and by the co-ordination of many minds. 

There can be no important growth or advancement in 
any science or art that does not take place by means of a 
co-ordination of many minds. The human being has this 
peculiarity : he can communicate with his kind. But for 
this, probably the human mind would be completely 
locked in a subjective dungeon. It is only when an idea 
of one mind is brought in contact with another that it 
grows and strengthens, and whenever we have a form of 
work, a department of science, which is isolated from 
others, its advancement is very slow, if it improves at all ; 
but where an individual is working alone, his methods 
die with him and always become abnormal without a 
co-operation of other minds. This is exactly what has 
taken place in elocution. Books have been written, and 
men have studied with individual teachers to receive their 
traditions, and in this way, as has been shown, there has 
been some growth ; but this has not been accelerated or 
assisted by specially-organized schools, by any association 
of men, as has been the case in other departments of 
knowledge. 

There are many reasons why such a special school 
should be established. The work is so peculiar, so differ- 



422 Application. 

ent from all other phases of human education, that it will 
be overlooked unless there is such a school for technical 
preparation. The teacher often thinks he needs only the 
common preparation of every teacher, but while the 
teacher of expression needs the preparation of the ordi- 
nary teacher, he needs something more. He needs tech- 
nical training, technical knowledge, technical skill. 

It may be very well to ask why there should be a 
special school in any province of knowledge. A special 
school should be organized either on account of the pecul- 
iar nature of the work, the peculiar character of the 
training, on account of it's definite relation to some pro- 
fession, or to give emphasis to some neglected phase of 
education. A special school of law is necessary because 
the aim is to prepare members for a specific profession. 
The same is true of a school of theology. The doctor is 
not only prepared for a special profession, but, in the 
very nature of the case, he needs peculiar and special 
information regarding a definite field of knowledge. A 
clergyman has often risen to great power without the 
theological school, with merely a college course and his 
own study into the needs of men, but the doctor, either 
in the regular medical school or as the private pupil of 
some physician, absolutely requires a special preparation. 
The technical schools and the manual schools, especially 
the latter, are organized to emphasize a definite phase of 
education. 

Teachers of expression have a peculiar work different 
from that of all other teachers, who need special technical 
training. The knowledge that is to be attained and the 
skill that is to be acquired is almost, if not quite, as 
peculiar as that of the doctor. The technical skill and 
execution required is almost, if not quite, as special and 
peculiar as that needed by the musician. If there are to 



Office of a Teacher of Expression. 423 

be special schools of music on account of the peculiar 
training that is required and the technical skill that must 
be mastered, then the same must be held true of work in 
expression. Just as there is a little music which belongs 
to all education, so there is a certain amount of expres- 
sion which belongs to all education, but as it is absolutely 
necessary that a teacher of singing, to be effective, should 
have special training in order to give his work in the 
public schools, so it is with expression. There is a 
certain amount and form of it belonging to the develop- 
ment of every man, as has been shown, but the teacher 
who does this general amount of expression requires a 
place at which he can secure definite and special training 
so that he will be able to meet the needs of those com- 
mitted to his charge. 

There are, in the case of such a school, peculiar and 
special dangers. Being a study to a great extent of 
manner, there is a danger that it should become super- 
ficial, as has been shown. Besides, since it is a subject- 
ive work, it especially favors pretensions and extravagant 
claims. It is very liable to end in mere show. There is 
more danger of superficiality and conventionality than in 
any other form of education. There is also danger of 
merely working for money. Being an art that when 
popular brings the greatest financial reward of almost 
any, there is great temptation to sacrifice true artistic 
work for what is merely popular, if not degrading. Being 
an art which is not reined up by open criticisms as 
other forms of art, being an art that is completely pass- 
ing, and having no permanent body by which it can be 
criticised and its weaknesses held up to ridicule, it is 
especially liable to aim for the popular and temporary 
rather than the artistic and eternal. By teachers and 
schools holding out exaggerated hopes to incompetent 



424 Application. 

persons, by flattering the inexperienced and the ignorant, 
much money can be made, and there is a constant tempt- 
ation in this direction. 

For this reason such a school needs to be endowed and 
established upon a most solid foundation and in the care 
of trustees who love the work, who understand its needs, 
its possibilities and its dangers, and who can place both 
school and teachers beyond temptation. 

Again, such a school, while it should be special, while 
it has peculiar and special training, ought to belong to 
some great university where it will continually be 
inspired with a spirit of scholarship, and not be isolated 
and the more endangered on account of being separated 
from universal education. Such work, in fact, demands 
a more intimate connection with the university than even 
the other professional schools. Otherwise it will become 
merely technical, or tend to become so, and will become 
a mere matter of manner and the thorough discipline of 
the faculties will be lost sight of. Such work, in fact, 
while needing separate attention, should be as far as pos- 
sible associated with other forms of education. It has 
been shown that it lies along the line of advanced edu- 
cation in all departments. Without advanced methods 
in education, other subjects may advance to some extent, 
but the development of delivery will be absolutely 
perverted. 



XXIV. 

THE SPECIAL ARTS OF EXPRESSION. 

"Education is the development of all the powers of man to the culminating point of 
action — action in art." 

It may be well still further to illustrate the application 
of expression to education and to discuss some of the 
special professions for which such training is necessary. 
Let us first of all consider its service to teachers, not 
merely to technical teachers of expression, but to all 
instructors. Work in expression is necessary to these 
on account of the general reasons already given, but more 
especially because every teacher must use his voice. He 
must present the truth, and his manner of presenting the 
truth is vitally important. If his voice is cold and hard, 
he will weary his students. If he is monotonous he will 
fail to awaken or at least to sustain interest. 

Many failures among teachers may be traced directly 
to a misuse of the voice. Teachers in our public schools 
are continually breaking down from sore throats and ill 
health of various kinds. Many suffer continually who 
say nothing about it, lest they should lose their positions. 
What is the cause of this ? Most teachers have to speak 
in large rooms to forty or fifty children, some even to 
sixty or seventy. Very frequently the rooms are in a 
noisy part of a city and teachers have great difficulty in 
making themselves heard. The result is, they begin to 
strain the voice, not knowing how to use it, and a sore 
throat is the inevitable consequence. Many not knowing 
how to breathe, cramp the lungs and strain the throat, 
so - that the whole nervous system becomes broken down 
and the organs of the body ready for disease. 



426 Application. 

That something destroys the health of teachers has 
been recognized for some time ; and physical culture has 
been brought forward the last few years as the remedy. 
This is very important, but it does not go to the root of 
the evil. Nine tenths of the time bad health is due to a 
misuse of the voice and the organs of expression. 

When we come to think of the teacher's function, of 
the influence of tone upon children, when we see what 
unconscious imitators children are, we feel at once the 
great importance of having teachers trained in the use of 
their voices. Teachers must present the truth. Chil- 
dren often get more from their teachers unconsciously 
than they do consciously. If a teacher has a cold, hard 
voice, the children will be affected unconsciously. For 
these, and other reasons, we can realize at once the 
importance of special training of all instructors in the 
use of their voices. 

Again, it is universally recognized that our American 
voice is growing hard and unpleasant. Much of this is 
due simply to neglect of vocal culture ; there is none of 
it in the home, little or none of it in the school. But 
the chief cause is either the bad example or the bad 
methods of teachers. For instance, the common meth- 
ods for the development of articulation constrict the 
throat and harden the voice. In reading there is little or 
no study of the qualities of the voice. The right atten- 
tion to the use of the voice is more universally needed 
to-day by teachers than any form of training, or subject 
of study. 

Again, parents justly complain of the lack of general 
culture among teachers. The mother goes to see the 
teacher to whom she is to commit her child, and finds one 
who is thoroughly posted in the methods of the Normal 
School, but whose voice is cold and harsh and whose 



Special Arts of Expression. 427 

imagination and taste are crude and undisciplined. She 
goes home feeling discouraged. There are many such ; 
but unfortunately there are more who pay no attention 
to the matter at all, who commit their children to any- 
body, trusting entirely to the school committee. The 
result, especially upon the voice, and often upon the 
health, is very bad. 

Teachers need culture, literary culture, culture of the 
voice and culture for grace and bearing of the body. 
The teacher must have imagination and insight into 
human nature. Expression furnishes almost the only 
effective means to enable the teacher to secure the 
breadth of culture that is needed. Not only is express- 
ive training needed by teachers for the sake of their 
health, for their direct and indirect influence over chil- 
dren, but for other reasons. They must have the power 
to adapt truth to others. A knowledge of expression 
aids them in a knowledge of human nature. Their 
insight into the needs of children is quickened, and they 
are enabled to be far better judges of the children's 
growth and harmonious development. 

One of the most important applications of expressive 
training, must be the development of public speakers, the 
improvement of the art of oratory. However beautiful a 
method for the development of expression may seem, if 
it fails to develop public speakers, it must be funda- 
mentally wrong, for oratory, as the world has ever held, is 
the highest of all the vocal arts, if not the highest of all 
the arts. When we think of Greece we think of the 
climax of her art in Demosthenes. Although many relics 
of her sculpture and architecture have come down to us, 
although we can still gaze with enraptured vision upon 
the relics of the Parthenon, upon the Hermes, the 
Theseus and the Venus de Milo ; yet, while we have only 



428 Application. 

the bare words of the Oration on the Crown, and the 
music of the voice that poured forth the passion and 
patriotism has long been silent, still it is considered as 
one of the highest flights of human genius. It is this 
phase of expression which is held by the world to be 
more sacred than any other, the divinest mode of convey- 
ing truth. Whenever soul faces soul, all other forms of 
art seem cold and lifeless. Whenever a man has been on 
trial for his life or has sought to awaken the patriotism 
or quicken the life of his race, the means that has always 
been adopted has been oratory. No reform has ever 
been propagated without its aid. The Goddess of Liberty 
has ever held her sister Eloquence by the hand. Dis- 
course is the crowning achievement of the human mind, 
without which freedom, benevolence and progress have 
ever slumbered. " No free country has ever existed that 
has not erected its altar to persuasion." 

Men have,, said that oratory belonged only to ages of 
ignorance and unlettered peoples ; that it is displaced 
now by the printing-press ; he who has anything to say 
must now say it through the medium of newspapers or 
books. But while the press as a method of communica- 
tion has become more and more influential, still when- 
ever there is a political campaign, whenever there is 
public agitation on any great subject, that printing has 
not displaced oratory, must be clear to the most skeptical. 
So long as the world stands, there will be an art of 
oratory, and in some form or other it will be found to 
grow and advance. While its form may change, its spirit 
will remain. 

Nothing is more universally acknowledged than the 
fact that modern methods of education do not develop, or 
at least are unfavorable to the development of public 
speaking. There are many reasons for this. The mod- 



Special Arts of Expression. 429 

em tendencies have been toward science and material 
advancement, or toward those arts which are associated 
especially with decoration and ornamentation. 

Besides, modern education pays very little attention to 
literary and artistic training of any kind. Scientific 
culture and the utilitarian or business education in our 
modern days have, in a great measure, supplanted artistic 
development. Even in art work students are made 
critics rather than artists. The creative faculties are not 
awakened ; the imagination is not stirred ; the emotions 
and passions of the man are either repressed and killed, 
or perverted ; there is no discipline, no great endeavor 
in education to co-ordinate, to harmonize and unite 
passion and thought, a co-ordination of which must ever 
be the fundamental requisite of oratory. 

If modern education has failed to develop orators, 
certainly elocution has made a still worse failure. As 
was shown by Whately many years ago, more speakers 
have been spoiled than have been made by the old 
artificial methods. 

One main reason for this, probably, is on account of the 
tendency to develop self-consciousness. Elocution con- 
tending that the speaker must understand and hold every 
thing in his mind and obey consciously-prescribed rules 
for every vocal modulation or physical action, the oratoric 
instinct is perverted, all is made artificial, and the death 
of true oratory naturally follows. 

Let us look for a moment carefully at the problem of 
public speaking. Judging from the nature of the case, 
what needs to be done ? First of all, the speaker must 
have great powers of mind. It is the soul that must 
speak. Accordingly a speaker must be trained to think ; 
but this is general and applies to preparation for any pro- 
fession. There is, however, in speaking a special kind of 



430 Application. 

thinking. The speaker must have deep power of insight 
into fundamentals. It is not the number of thoughts 
that a speaker utters, but their character that accom- 
plishes the end. His power depends upon his grasp of 
what lies at the foundation. A speaker must say the 
right thing. He must therefore of all men, have insight 
into human character — into human knowledge — into 
human motives. He speaks to awaken thought in others. 
So important is suggestion in oratory that the speaker's 
chief power is to know what not to say.. 

Again, his imagination must be thoroughly trained. 
He must not only have power to think, but his thought 
must be living. It must breathe and move in noble form 
and vivid color. A mere abstract thinker can never 
make an orator. 

Again, an orator must be a man of feeling. Magnet- 
ism is simply the result of passion, united to thought. 
It results from sympathy of the man with his kind. The 
greatest orators in all ages have been men of strong, deep 
emotion. And not only so, the emotion and thought of 
the man must be co-ordinated by will. Feeling without 
thought is sentimental and vain ; thought without feeling 
is cold and dead, and both without will are weak. The 
orator, before all men, must co-ordinate the primary acts 
of his soul ; these must be united in one strong impulse. 

Thus we can see that it is not merely the acquisition 
of knowledge that makes the speaker. While knowledge 
is power, knowledge alone will never constitute oratoric 
power. The power of an orator is measured by his assim- 
ilation of knowledge : knowledge that has become a part 
of him ; that is not merely in the memory, but in the 
life-blood of the soul. 

But the orator is also dependent upon expression. He 
must have a vocabulary. He must have command of 



Special Arts of Expression. 431 

words, command of voice and of body. He must com- 
mand all the languages of his nature. As many a speaker 
has only one emotion and never makes a strong effect 
upon his fellow-men and needs to have developed a 
broader and greater gamut of passion, so it is with his 
languages or modes of expression. A man with only one 
gesture, with only one tone, with only one inflection, with 
only one color to his voice, can never make an orator. 
He must have command of all the languages which 
belong to man. 

Again, he must not only have the power to create a 
vivid idea ; he must not only have command of all the 
languages that manifest this idea; but he must have 
power to abandon himself to the idea. Eloquence is the 
result of the domination of the human soul by an idea. 
The great unconscious forces of the man must be aroused 
and stirred. If oratory is the presentation of truth by 
personality, the deep, unconscious powers of the man 
which constitute the greatest element of personality must 
be awake. 

There must, therefore, be absence of self-conscious- 
ness. While there must be an extension of conscious- 
ness — while the man must be more or less conscious of 
his whole body, of his audience, of his modes of expres- 
sion, especially as to whether he is saying the right thing 
or not, still the unconscious forces of his nature must be 
roused and their involuntary modes of manifestation 
developed. He must lose consciousness and care for the 
opinion of men. He must, as Edward Everett Hale has 
said, be willing "to make himself a fool for his subject." 
No man who is not willing to do so has ever made an 
orator. He must not be too conscious of mere con- 
ventional propriety. The voluntary and involuntary 
parts of his nature must both be awake. There must, in 



432 Application. 

fact, be a co-ordination and union of the conscious and 
unconscious to such an extent that he can hardly draw 
the line between the two. He is both conscious and 
unconscious of his voice, and of his body, and of his 
audience ; he is both conscious and unconscious of his 
feeling ; but he is directly conscious of the great ideas 
upon which his whole soul is concentrated. 

He must thus be trained to think upon his feet. 
Without power of extemporaneous speaking, there can be 
no growth in the orator. While recitation may be 
important, while every great orator has loved and studied 
the poets, especially the dramatic poets, while every great 
orator in all time has devoted much time to recitation, 
yet the one exercise which is absolutely necessary is 
found in the various forms of speaking itself, and espe- 
cially in extemporaneous speaking. 

Thus, all training to improve the orator must develop 
his power of putting thought and passion together; must 
develop his power to bring the grandest thought and the 
highest abstraction into the realm of the imagination. A 
vague and indefinite truth must be assimilated and 
realized by the man. Every faculty and power of his 
nature must be aroused. Above all, training to develop 
an orator must give him control of his voice and his body, 
of every agent and of every language, as well as of every 
faculty of the soul. 

If we compare this ideal with the principles unfolded 
for the development of expression, we find that true work 
for expression will develop all these powers and agents 
and languages, and secure all these actions. The. funda- 
mental requisite of all expression has been shown to be 
a harmonious co-operation of all the powers of the man. 
The unconscious impulses of the man can be trained. It 
has been shown that not only can education affect the 



Special Arts of Expression. 433 

faculties by bringing them into consciousness, but that 
it can also affect the faculties without bringing them 
abnormally into consciousness. The spontaneous and 
deliberative impulses of the soul, as intended by nature, 
can be made stronger and co-ordinated into greater unity 
for the highest art. The development of the powers of 
expression does not require that the consciousness of the 
man shall be placed merely upon language or upon the 
agents of the body or their motions, but can be kept 
centered upon his ideas. The train of ideas which passes 
through his soul furnishes the key to the nature of all 
expression. Even faults of breathing, faults of voice, 
can be traced to the action of the mind. It has been 
shown that the whole power of the man can be con- 
centrated upon these ideas, that they can stimulate the 
passion and impulses of the soul. The speaker can 
abandon himself to the dominion of these ideas, and they 
will stimulate and co-ordinate all the spontaneous impulses 
of his nature when rightly seen and rightly produced. 
The orator, therefore, can be developed without being 
made self-conscious. He can secure self-control without 
developing affectation. He can develop power to aban- 
don himself to passion and thought without losing control 
of the fundamental poise of his nature. He can develop 
power without abnormal extravagance, and control with- 
out repression. 

The speaker can acquire a facility of expression by 
personal contact with literature, by a thorough study of 
the best authors. He can become master of the art of 
putting thought into words. No mere scientific course 
of training or mere acquisition of knowledge can ever 
develop a speaker. Of course scientific training is very 
important. A certain amount of it is the very best train- 
ing that can be secured to develop powers of observation 



434 Application. 

or the logical faculties of the man ; but it can never alone 
make a speaker. The place of literary training can 
never be filled by scientific training in the development 
of any artist. 

In the application of methods for the development of 
delivery to public speakers, a vast number of difficulties 
are encountered. For example, in the theological school 
expressive training is so absolutely different in method 
and nature from the other studies in the school, that 
students of such schools are very difficult to teach ; 
besides, elocution has been so often condemned by great 
preachers of the century, that many students look at it 
with suspicion. For these and many other reasons, it 
often takes time to make students realize their needs and 
understand in the smallest degree, the true course which 
they must take in order to secure possession of them- 
selves, and achieve their ideals. Yet of all men at the 
present time, theological students have most need for the 
development of delivery, and when once they are awak- 
ened, there is no class of men who realize the importance 
of such training more than clergymen. 

There is a universal consciousness that there is some- 
thing radically wrong in the methods of developing the 
delivery of clergymen. Students themselves have often 
felt it. The lay members of the ' church have, however, 
felt it most, and the adequate training of clergymen as 
manifest in their delivery, their general culture as shown 
in the use of their voice, are among the most important 
of the elements that weigh in the selection of pastors. 
Good delivery is accounted one of the most fundamental 
requisites, but one of the rarest attainments. 

What is needed to-day in the education of the speaker 
and especially of the clergyman is an application to the 
whole subject of delivery, of the true principles governing 



Special Arts of Expression. 435 

natural methods in education such as have been applied 
even to the study of Hebrew. In short, there is needed 
an application of a careful method of observation, a thor- 
ough study of nature in the light of modern science and 
the most advanced methods of education. The needs of 
the preacher are the needs of all our schools and profes- 
sions at the present time, only more accentuated. There 
is no place in all education where there is greater need of 
the application of the principles advocated in this book, 
than in the training of preachers. Elocution has proved 
inadequate because it has been too narrow, it has not 
gone to the depths of the problem, it has left untouched 
many of the most important elements of expression. 
Clergymen need to be shown the artistic phase of edu- 
cation. Many of their faults can never be eradicated 
without a more thorough and radical development of their 
imagination, of their literary taste, of their dramatic 
instincts and their creative faculties. The same applies 
to all speakers. In fact, careful study of delivery and 
thorough training according to the principles here advo- 
cated should be applied, if public speaking of any kind 
is to be improved. 

Oratory is an art that aims to present the truth for 
the conscious and direct persuasion of men. But there 
are other arts of expression which reach their results 
indirectly ; though not consciously or directly persuading, 
yet they move the soul as potently by unconscious 
influence as oratory. Man is so constructed that he is 
influenced both consciously and unconsciously. Con- 
scious influence is worth but little without unconscious 
influence. Just as expression itself is composed of a 
co-ordination of conscious and unconscious elements, so 
the arts of expression have a corresponding complexity. 
All great art chiefly depends upon reaching men uncon- 



43 6 Application. 

sciously and indirectly. A great painting does not con- 
sciously preach, but it does influence men. A sermon 
upon the conscience is very important ; but Shakespeare's 
art in Macbeth accomplishes the results indirectly. Here 
the thing is done that breeds the thought. There is no 
conscious and direct preaching, but two souls are por- 
trayed under the influence of conscience ; right is made to 
triumph according to the law of all great art. Shakes- 
peare taken as the type of all great artists never tries to 
justify wrong or right, but each is painted in its own 
native colors. Nature, the highest artist, causes her sun 
to rise on the evil and the good, but seeks ever to awaken 
the impulses of the soul. As the aim of art is usually 
considered to be indirect, mystic or unconscious, some 
deny that oratory is an art at all. True art, however, is 
the co-ordination of conscious and unconscious elements, 
and the highest oratory is not direct exhortation, but 
approaches the subject indirectly and awakens uncon- 
scious as well as conscious motives. As a man becomes 
eloquent, spontaneous elements become predominant. 
The difference between the two, therefore, is one of 
degree rather than kind. Oratory has more conscious, 
histrionic expression, more unconscious elements. 

Some regard art as simply "delight in God's works." 
Others regard it as a means of telling the truth. How- 
ever art may be regarded, its power to elevate or degrade 
men can not be ignored. The effect of art upon men, 
whether conscious or unconscious, direct or indirect, may 
be explained on this ground. Art itself being the 
actualization of an ideal, we can see its kinship to human 
life. Life itself is a realization of an ideal. Every man 
has consciously or unconsciously an ideal within him, 
and character and all human life is the actualization of 
this ideal. Browning has said that the ideal of the worst 



Special Arts of Expressioiz. 437 

man in the world is higher than the actual life of the best 
man in the world. 

Now, when art is presented to the human soul it 
appeals to this ideal, and will, of course, elevate or lower 
it. However comic, however temporary or transient the 
art may be, it will have an effect upon man's ideal. Man 
can be pleased above or below the plane of hfs ordinary 
feeling. However low the tone of a man's mind may be, 
he can be pleased in the direction of still lower tendencies. 
This, of course, will degrade the man. But whenever a 
man is pleased above the ordinary plane of his emotions 
he is elevated, his ideal is quickened, and his emotions 
and impulses toward reaching his ideal are stimulated. 

Shakespeare's art has always a most healthful moral 
effect upon us. He does not preach, but however low 
the character he portrays, it is related directly or 
indirectly to an ideal. All is permeated with the moral 
spirit inherent in the human soul. One who makes a 
study of Shakespeare or lives with such art as Walter 
Scott's novels, receives unconsciously a great influence 
into his life. The especial function of fiction and dra- 
matic art in the general education of the race is to 
awaken ideal conceptions of manhood and womanhood, 
to show men the different points of view among men, and 
to stimulate dramatic insight into human character. The 
parable falling from the most sacred lips is a recognition 
of the necessity of teaching men through the medium of 
art. The deepest lessons must be given to men 
indirectly and unconsciously as well as directly and 
deliberatively. 

It has been shown again and again that histrionic art 
broadens and expands the human soul more directly than 
any form or art. Men's views of human life would be 
narrow and one-sided without the assistance of dramatic 



43 8 Application. 

art. Art does more than merely stimulate an ideal and 
please, it enables men to look at truth from different 
points of view. 

No greater mistake has ever been made than to leave 
dramatic art to hap-hazard study, to the vicious and the 
ignorant, and never to consider it as in any way belonging 
to education or as deserving any attention or regulation. 

How do the principles governing methods apply to the 
development of histrionic expression ? 

What are some of the methods usually employed for 
the development of the histrionic artist ? The one most 
commonly in use is that of simple dramatic rehearsal. 
The student who desires to prepare for the stage is first 
employed at the theater as a "supernumerary." He does 
"utility business". He receives no instruction except 
occasionally something to do upon the stage. He is 
employed with a large number of others as a mere figure- 
head in some scene. 

In this way he is supposed to absorb the principles of 
the art. Some studious aspirants observe the acting of 
the ablest "star", and endeavor to imitate all his peculiar 
movements and expressions. Many such aspirants do 
nothing at all. Of course only one in a thousand ever 
succeeds ; only one in ten thousand ever reaches artistic 
prominence. The method is vicious. All attention is 
directed to imitation. Brought before an audience before 
any self-control has been secured, brought into positions 
by some mechanical direction, and made to think of busi- 
ness and nothing else, all expression becomes artificial 
and stilted. 

There is no more effective way to destroy the student's 
ideal of the true artistic nature of expression, no worse 
way to fetter the imagination and stifle the whole 
artistic nature. True expression must ever begin with 



Special Arts of Expression. 439 

the study of ideas and the awakening of emotion. The 
artistic instinct must first of all be stimulated and the 
individual secure control of his own power of rendering, 
before he is worked into a scene to co-operate with others 
for a simultaneous and co-ordinate manifestation, such as 
is called for in histrionic expression. 

Another method is the "Amateur Company". This 
is worse still. The student is not brought in contact 
with art nor with any standard of true criticism. Many 
who attend an amateur performance are there to laugh 
at the egotism and the unconscious blunders of the per- 
formers. An audience often laughs in the most serious 
scene, because the actor is making such a ludicrous 
figure, of which he is wholly unconscious. Amateurs 
fall into* the habit of mouthing and rant. Everything is 
made stilted, and all ease and simplicity are destroyed. 
Everything is the result of aggregation and extravagance. 
An amateur is easily known. He has no expression in 
the face, all subtilty of nature is lost and his every action 
is stilted and labored. There are, of course, a few 
exceptions, but they are extremely rare. The few who 
succeed either by this, or the first course, do so by acci- 
dent. They never can rise to the height of art that 
would be possible with a more adequate method. 

The third method adopted is the elocutionary, one. 
This has also failed. It is almost universally condemned 
by the best actors. The ordinary work of elocution 
is too mechanical and artificial. The few who have 
studied elocution before going upon the stage, have after- 
ward said that they had to forget all that they had 
learned. Mechanical elocution causes self-consciousness, 
substitutes tricks for natural expression, trains the stu- 
dent to obey rules rather than natural impulses of the 
heart, makes him distrust himself and nature, and trust 



44° Application. 

entirely to some mechanical or artificial mode of 
procedure. 

All these modes have been proved to be inadequate. 
They all result in artificiality and mechanical modes of 
expression. There is to-day very little dramatic instinct 
upon the stage. The methods for the development of 
actors, the nature of many of the plays which are pro- 
duced, call for mere mechanical performance and not for 
artistic acting. Many times a man is chosen for the part 
of a Frenchman, for example, simply because he has a 
French brogue and can walk through the part without 
any mechanical offense. Women are chosen for parts 
simply because they are beautiful and have a fine form. 
The whole art of acting is looked at from an external 
aspect and not in reference to the true principles of art 
or the real nature of the human soul. 

Everything upon the stage is looked at from the point 
of view of representation, and nothing from the stand- 
point of manifestation. As has already been shown, true 
dramatic art is a co-ordination of manifestation with 
representation. Accordingly, modern acting is all tend- 
ing to farce and the comic opera. Appealing to a 
depraved taste which it stimulates more and more, the 
educated classes almost universally remain at home. 
Instead of endeavoring to awaken in an audience a love 
of true art, of the action of the soul, of dramatic instinct, 
of the manifestation of the noblest feelings and ideals, the 
appeal is more and more to the eye. Expression is con- 
founded with exhibition and oddities and characteristics 
substituted for character. 

One who wishes to make a success in dramatic expres- 
sion needs to obey the principles here unfolded, to secure 
control over voice and body, to develop the artistic 
faculties, to stimulate the imagination and the sympathies, 



Special Arts of Expression. 441 

to develop ideals of art from the depths of his own soul 
and from an ideal study of the best possible art of every 
form. Then, and not till then, he should begin to study 
the business of his art ; otherwise he will be more con- 
scious of the external than of the internal, he will all his 
life lack control of his voice and of his body, which should 
have been attained as the most preliminary step in his 
training. 

The actor is more conscious of the manifestation 
through every part of his body, of the various modes and 
languages of each agency, than the speaker, but in 
general the same principles apply. The more eloquent a 
speaker is the more the spontaneous element predomin- 
ates. Every step we have attained, every principle of 
nature unfolded, applies with equal force to every appli- 
cation of expression. The unconscious as well as the 
conscious use of the faculties must be stimulated. 
Expression of whatever form when it rises to its high- 
est aspect is a revelation of the whole man. The orator 
is called upon to discharge a conscious process of think- 
ing and to form his ideas into words, but the true actor 
also has to think his part, and while he does not choose 
his own words, still he must carry all the languages to a 
much further height, must use a greater number, and 
bring them all into a greater and more absolute unity, 
so that every power of his nature must be awake. 

Another important phase of histrionic art is public 
reading. It is essentially different from acting. It is 
more subjective, more manifestive. Good acting, as has 
been shown, is both representative and manifestive, but 
on account of the presence of scenery and the fact that an 
actor confines himself to one part, there is a tendency to 
exaggerate the representative element ; but public read- 
ing must first of all be manifestive. The representative 



44 2 Application. 

element can only be delicately suggested. The repre- 
sentative element must in nearly all cases be subordinated 
to the manifestive element. Another difference is, that 
public reading must be more dramatic than acting. Of 
course many will laugh at this, but a little investigation 
will prove it to be true. A good reader must give in 
co-operation a great many characters, while the actor 
gives but one. The actor by make-up can substitute 
some physical characteristic, even some oddity of dress, 
for true dramatic instinct, but as a rule true and noble 
public reading calls for the mental difference of charac- 
ters. When Mr. Irving acts in Hamlet the audience 
sees his conception of one part, but when he reads the 
play he furnishes a conception for every part. He must 
suggest by more subtle means the real nature of Hamlet, 
must suggest the fundamental elements not only of this, 
but of every character in the play. His instinct as to the 
relation of these characters and the blending of all into 
unity, must be seen and felt. In this case he reveals the 
play of his soul in more aspects, in more relations than 
is possible in any other form of dramatic art. 

Endeavors have been made in all ages of the world to 
keep the theater upon the plane of art, but it ever tends to 
sink to spectacular shows. It has ever been more or less 
in the hands of money-makers. 

There is, however, no desire to disparage theatric art, 
but only to say a word in behalf of a neglected and 
despised phase of dramatic art which is worthy of the 
highest claims and which the sneers of self-styled dra- 
matic critics have never been able to kill. It is older 
than the art of the theater. The art of the theater came 
only, strictly speaking, when ^Eschylus introduced a 
second actor. Stage art is, strictly speaking, a phase of 
recitation rather than public reading, a phase of theatric 



Special Arts of Expression. 443 

art. The world must and will have some form of dra- 
matic art. That which can be easiest regulated, that 
which can be preserved most inviolate, that which can be 
made a subject of artistic criticism, that which can be 
made to respond most sensitively to human nature, that 
which can be held up most easily as a mirror "to show 
virtue its own feature, scorn its own image," is public 
reading. 

Professor Murdoch has shown that there never was a 
time when there were such great spectacular shows as 
in the time of Shakespeare. The exhibitions given by 
Leicester at Kenilworth for Queen Elizabeth were 
beyond modern imagination. Scott has endeavored to 
paint them in his novel, but he has hardly exagger- 
ated them. And yet notwithstanding this, Shakespeare 
rejected them and produced his dramas with little of the 
splendor of modern productions and did not have the 
real candles upon the altars, the gorgeous scenery with 
which his plays have since been produced, though he 
could have had them. The acting of his plays was more 
like public reading than modern dramatic acting. Theat- 
ric art in our time, with some noble exceptions, is a means 
of exhibiting ten thousand dollar Paris wardrobes and 
gorgeous displays of scenery. Of course all lovers of the 
drama regret this and condemn it ; yet the Jockey Club 
is ever ready to hiss down a Wagner who refuses to 
insert a ballet dance in one of his great musical dramas, 
and introduces instead a most delicate and original pres- 
entation of artistic music. It does not do merely to 
sneer at Paris for doing this ; the spirit is in the modern 
theater and its patrons, and it must be recognized. 

One remedy, as it seems to me, is to build up a co-or- 
dinate art, to foster it, to encourage it, to recognize it by 
special criticism, to feed and encourage the deep and 



444 Application. 

most profound and most necessary dramatic instinct of 
the race which is being stifled by the modern theater. 
It may thus react and furnish one lever to assist in 
elevating its more representative sister. 

The art of reading, denied the adjuncts of make-up 
and scenery, must be more suggestive, it must appeal 
more to the mind than to the eye ; there must be a series 
of hints and intimations to awaken thinking and to stimu- 
late the imagination and feeling of an audience. 

If all this is true, public reading must be inherently a 
higher art than acting. It has greater possibilities in its 
application to a greater variety of literature. It can be 
applied to lyrics, to ballads, to the monologue, to short 
stories and to the novel, while acting can only be applied 
to one particular form of literature. If the monologue is 
one of the latest and most important forms of dramatic 
literature, then the rendering of these must be one of the 
highest forms of histrionic expression. 

On the other hand public reading as an art is on a 
lower plane of development than acting. The reason for 
this is, that public reading has been more in bondage to 
mechanical elocution than acting. Again, the public 
reader having a very difficult task to perform in contrast- 
ing characters, has been led to adopt extravagant tricks 
in order to make his contrasts emphatic. He has 
adopted tricks of body, tricks with the face and tricks 
With the voice, and he has even adopted the worst faults 
of voice for the purpose of interpreting character. Public 
reading has in fact in many cases become an art of 
caricature rather than of characterization. Besides, pub- 
lic reading has tended to confine itself to the lower and 
farcical class of literature. The beautiful lyrics of the 
language, for example, have not been considered proper 
subjects for public reading. Again, in public reading 



Special Arts of Expression. 445 

the arrangement or the abridgment of literature for the 
purpose of reading has often destroyed the highest quali- 
ties of that literature. A novel, for example, like David 
Copperfield or the play which was founded upon it, in 
being arranged for reading has been completely spoiled. 
One of the most prominent readers of the country in 
his rendering of this work practically obliterates all the 
normal characters. There is nothing left but " Micaw- 
ber" and "Uriah Heep." Even poor old "Peggotty" is 
cramped and dwarfed and has dwindled into an abnormal 
specimen of humanity. Another whom I taught in 
Nicholas Nickleby, in spite of all that was said and urged, 
makes Nicholas weak. As Nicholas was natural he could 
not see that this character needed more work than 
Squeers or Mrs. Squeers. Normal parts raise no laugh, 
so they are to be slighted. Often, however, neglect of 
such parts is merely unconscious, but it shows the con- 
dition of the art. 

Such readers, or impersonators, as they like to call 
themselves, entirely overlook the principles of literary 
art. They entirely forget that we take no interest in an 
abnormal character in true dramatic art, or in the true 
novel, or in any high art work, except as it is contrasted 
with a normal one. Dickens is always true to this prin- 
ciple in all his novels. David Copperfield is rightly 
named. It is the noble character of David that is felt 
from first to last. Nicholas Nickleby is the central 
figure in our minds from first to last as we read the 
novel. Shakespeare more perfectly than any dramatic 
poet obeys this principle. To cut out the normal charac- 
ters in "Twelfth Night", as is so often done, is to turn 
this noble comedy into a farce. "Twelfth Night," 
"Much Ado About Nothing" and the "Merchant of 
Venice " are not farces, they are comedies ; wherever we 



446 Application. 

have only abnormal characters we have a farce. The 
form in which these plays are read by our public readers 
destroys their high literary art by a violation of the prin- 
ciples which Shakespeare always obeys, of introducing the 
comic and abnormal characters and humorous situations 
in direct contrast with normal ones, to heighten the 
effect. Dicken's great novel of David Copperfield can 
never be made out of " Uriah Heep" and "Micawber". 
True art uses the abnormal and the normal to accentuate 
each other by contrast. 

This same principle applies to the arrangement of 
programs in miscellaneous readings, and is always obeyed 
by Prof. J. W. Churchill. This eminent artist ever seeks 
to arrange his readings with great contrasts and also with 
great variety in the contrasts during the same evening. 

The best of our readers excuse themselves for not 
reading a better class of literature on the ground that 
audiences do not appreciate the best literature, and that 
they are compelled to read the worst form, otherwise 
they would not be appreciated at all ; but in this I think 
that public readers are mistaken, for though the ordinary 
audience that now gathers to hear public readings might 
not receive it, yet if better literature was rendered a 
better audience would be attracted who would like it, 
and not only so, but that audience would be an ever 
increasing one, and the whole art would be advanced and 
elevated. 

Professor Monroe used to tell a story of a committee 
from a New England town who wrote to him to give 
them a public reading; they specially requested as is 
unfortunately common with such committees, that the 
readings should be comic, and stated that they did not 
wish any Shakespeare or anything serious. At Professor 
Monroe's earnest request he was allowed to read a 



Special Arts of Expression. 447 

selection from Hamlet. It was this particular reading 
for which he was most highly complimented, and which 
pleased the audience universally more than any other. 

This and hundreds of other instances could be shown 
to prove that such committees know little about art and 
often under-estimate the taste of an audience. Being so 
anxious to make their readings popular, and knowing that 
almost anybody can read a comic piece to please, they 
make their demands. They also make a mistake in fail- 
ing to see that even the comic parts of a program lose 
their highest effect when they are not alternated with 
something which is ideal and serious. 

Public reading has itself to blame that only those who 
love the lower class of literature go to hear readings. 
This particular taste has been fed. The best people, who 
wish to hear the best literature, do not go to public read- 
ings because they know. that they will be disappointed. 
Wherever any great artist will pay the price he will 
receive a reward. The public reader himself seeks too 
often merely to raise a laugh. Henry Ward Beecher 
said that if he could get an audience to laugh he could 
make them shed tears in a few minutes. The great aim 
of histrionic art of the highest kind is to sway an audi- 
ence. If an audience laughs and nothing else all is 
one-sided, the audience is not truly moved. Shakespeare 
makes an audience laugh in all his highest tragedies, but 
he also makes them weep more than any other writer. 
The last act of Hamlet is introduced by grave-diggers 
and a very comic situation, but in that very comic 
situation a grave is being dug, and in a few moments the 
audience is swayed to another extreme. Shakespeare has 
dared violent contrasts just as the greatest musician 
dares to introduce the greatest dissonances. The true 
impersonator or public reader, if he does not wish his art 



448 Application. 

to become degraded and' fall into mere farce, must obey 
the same principle in arranging his readings and in 
abridging his selections. There must be a study of the 
principle which is entirely over-looked in much of the 
public reading, and the characters and situation contrasted 
according to the principle of the best art. 

Besides, such committees and the lower class of readers 
over-estimate a laugh. They think that they have moved 
an audience when they have caused an external demon- 
stration. This was not the opinion of the great actor, 
Betterton. He was never pleased with the clapping of an 
audience. He said that any fool could raise a laugh or 
cause tremendous noise, but it took an artist to awe an 
audience into silence. 

Nearly all our public readers, as is the case with many 
of our actors, make some little success, and they proceed 
ever afterward to imitate themselves. They get into a 
specialty and are continually striving to find something 
similar so that they can reproduce the effect to an audi- 
ence. A painter, a poet, an artist of any kind, has fallen 
into a very bad way when he endeavors to imitate himself. 

What public reading to-day needs as an art is great 
mastery of voice and body, no less than the technical 
work which is now practiced by the best readers. Simul- 
taneously there must be improvement in literary taste, a 
development of the imagination, the dramatic and the 
assimilative instincts and artistic insight, that public 
reading may be made a servant, not of the lowest, but of 
the highest literature, a means not of degrading but of 
elevating public taste, to show the world beauties in the 
highest literature which they have entirely over looked. 

A great opportunity is open to one who is willing to 
work for years and pay the price, who would be willing 
to do his very best artistic work to a "fit audience, 



Special Arts of Expression. 449 

though few." At first the audience might be small, but 
it would grow. The struggle itself would make such a 
reader grow, and his circle would widen and his art be 
lifted to higher heights. Every man must do something 
for his art as well as for the audience to which he reads, 
and such unselfish work, soon or late has ever met with 
its reward. The greatest artist has ever had to pay his 
price and wait long for his reward, but that reward when 
it comes is greater and higher and more satisfying to the 
artistic soul. 

One of the great needs of public reading is the appli- 
cation of dramatic criticism. The stage has made most 
wonderful advance since the introduction into the best 
class of periodicals of dramatic criticism, but no one has 
yet dared to do this in relation to public reading. This 
is a great loss, as the public reader, even more than the 
actor, is tempted to extravagance, tempted to mannerism, 
tempted to do everything his own way, and therefore 
needs another artistic mind to mirror his endeavors, his 
successes and his failures. It is this lack of proper 
criticism, the silence of so many persons competent to 
speak on such a subject, that causes public reading to 
be where it is. Public sentiment needs expression. 
There can be no advance without it. The expression of 
public sentiment, the expression of the feelings of the 
one who is sincere, outweighs a whole theater of others. 
The voice of the ideal which is found in every heart, 
must be expressed through the critic as well as through 
the artists, to enable even the artist himself to grow. 

Public reading, combining as it does every element of 
expression, is one of the highest forms of histrionic art, 
and its proper development is very important. As we 
look at an ideal of the art in comparison with the prin- 
ciples unfolded which govern the development of expres- 



450 Application. 

sion, we feel more than ever their truth, their importance 
and their adequacy to meet all the great problems. 
There is needed a development of the unconscious as 
well as the conscious, the awakening of the most pro- 
found depths of the dramatic instinct, the development 
of the whole artistic nature, a development of the mani- 
festive as well as the representative elements, so that 
public reading may include the most delicate lyrics and 
give them the most truthful rendering as well as the 
strongest and most passionate scenes. The most careful 
training of the voice and body, the highest development 
of each agency and the highest mastery of the languages 
belonging to man, the development of the imagination 
and of the powers of emotion ; in short, versatility of 
mind, agility of voice and flexibility of body, will find a 
means for the highest and most ideal and artistic use in 
the sphere of rendering the noblest literature through the 
various forms and modes of public reading. * 

There has been an endeavor to glance over the whole 
field of human delivery so as to form a more adequate 
conception of its general character, to aid in unfolding 
more adequate methods for its development. This gen- 
eral study has enabled us to form certain hypotheses 
which will assist us in an investigation of each specific 
phase of the problem. While difficult and more or less 
uninteresting may be the task of such general discussions, 
yet they are absolutely necessary in such a complex and 
misconceived problem as human delivery. Without these 
a teacher may take up vocal training or some one phase 
of expression, and seeing its wonderful character come to 
feel that it is the whole secret of delivery. 

We have found that the act of expression is complex, 
that it can never be made completely and solely a prod- 



Special Arts of Expression. 45 I 

uct of will Its improvement can not, therefore, be 
taught by rule ; it is more connected with the soul than 
any other art, and its improvement demands the stimula- 
tion of the faculties and impulses that express. 

We have found also that expression belongs to the 
very fountain-head of all art, that all art is a mode of 
expression or mode of recording expression, and that all 
art as an objective embodiment of expression, must be 
studied as the most adequate mirror to reflect the needs, 
nature, exaltation or degradation of expression. 

We have found more especially that there are two 
great modes of expression : a process of representation 
and a process of manifestation ; that the latter being more 
mystic and subjective and not subject to rule, has been 
neglected. Expression appeals to both eye and ear, it is 
extremely complex and calls for elements as widely apart 
as a tone and a motion of the hand. These elements can 
be divided into three classes, words, tones and actions. 
Each of these discharges a specific function, in fact, every 
part of the body plays a distinct role in expression. 

Expression is so complex that every phase of the 
human soul can be manifested, directly or indirectly, by 
•one language or by a combination of languages. The 
nature of expression shows that thought and emotion 
must both be revealed ; tone and action, especially their 
manifestive forms are primarily intended to express feel- 
ing, and this presupposes that feeling must be truly and 
adequately expressed. The acts of nature, therefore, 
must be studied and modes of procedure must be obeyed 
in order to improve expression. We find in the study of 
nature, that expression is a universal characteristic of all 
life. We find that nature proceeds from center to 
surface spontaneously, simply with ease, unity, harmony 
and freedom. We find that man is a more complex 



45 2 Application. 

being than any other, but that the same laws apply, that 
his whole nature must act in true expression and that 
this is the basis of spontaneity. 

As a result of the study of nature, we find that expres- 
sion must be improved by stimulating its impulse, by 
opening its channels of revelation and by securing skill 
in the execution of its manifestive actions. Expression 
being naturally an effect, must be improved by stimu- 
lating its cause, securing the proper condition and control 
of its organic means, a thorough knowledge of right and 
wrong, strong and weak modes of execution. The action 
of the mind is the key to faults, and all the psychic 
actions concerned in expression must first of all, be 
studied and properly disciplined. The voice and body 
must be more adequately trained, the principles of nature 
investigated so that there may be a science of training 
evolved for the development of the organs. To improve 
expression, insight of one human being into the process 
of the nature of another must be developed ; the most 
difficult form of criticism is found in the endeavor to 
improve the living man, to show a man wherein he does 
not fulfill the possibilities of his own nature. 

In comparing the development of expression with all 
education, we find that it is vitally connected with the 
creative aspect of human development, and that it holds a 
vital relationship to all phases of artistic training, and 
on account of its importance it needs to be taught by 
those who are thoroughly and adequately prepared. 

Expression furnishes the basis of the great art of 
entertainment, it is the basis of power in the orator. 
Since dramatic instinct is one of the most universal in 
the human heart, it is of vital moment that expression 
should be elevated to its proper place. 



INDEX. 



Abandon, nature of, 194; needed by 

speakers, 432. 
Accents, Sheridan on Greek, 311. 
Accidents, receive chief attention in 

elocution, 321. 
Acquirement, contrast to expression, 

391- 

Acting, compared with oratory, 136, 
137 ; a manifestive element, 137 ; 
Greek compared with modern, 
149, 150; compared to reading, 

441-3- 

Action of the mind, conscious and 
unconscious elements of, 188; 
needs training, 229, 233; basis 
of all expression, 260; methods 
of developing, 438, 440. 

Actors object to elocution, 323. 

Advance, need of, 361-384. 

Advances in art, 145, 150; in ora- 
tory, 150. 

^Eschylus, father of stage art, 442. 

^Esthetic gymnastics, 350. 

Affection, 49; corrected by expres- 
sive training, 406. 

Aggregation in expression, 132-3. 

Aims in educating delivery, 36, 48, 
63, 81, 98, 122, 142-3, 163, 237, 
287, 289; of education, 369. 

Andrea del Sarto, Browning's poem 
example of good criticism, 270, 
271. 

Anger, 35. 

Arnold Matthew, criticisms of, Amer- 
ica, 270 ; on literary training, 2. 

Art, definition needed, 20, 21 ; evil 
tendencies, 22; schools of, 68; 
revelation of, 74; expression 
in, 99, 102, 122; function of, 
no, 392, 436; how improved, 
122; periods of, 144; study of 
an aid in expression, 163, 364; 
nature, 167 ; original, 177 ; needs 
technical training, 257; how de- 



graded, 294 ; free, 365-7 ; use 
of, to teacher, 369; necessary, 
390 ; need of execution, 391 ; 
aids in education, 392; disci- 
plines the powers, 393; con- 
scious and unconscious, 436; of 
public reading, 441, 450; prin- 
ciple of contrast in, 447-8. 

Arts, advanced by comparative study, 
99 ; all one, 99-369 ; of expres- 
sion, 425-48. 

Artist, 319; wrong conceptions of, 
187. 

Artistic, emotion, 86-87; spontane- 
ous, 184-202; faculties must be 
trained, 393 ; training frees men, 
392 ; endeavor, expression the 
most fundamental, 401. 

Assimilation in expression, 133; 
greatly needed, 399-400. 

Athletics, not highest training, 391. 

Attitude, Delsarte emphasizes, 357. 

Audience, size enlarges expression, 
96-97; effect of, 256. 

Austin's chironomia, copied from 
ancients, 154-55-56, 311. 

Authors, best to be studied, 232. 

Awkwardness, 243. 

Bacon, ideal of education, 391, 407. 
Bain, law of diffusion, 246. 
Balance must be secured, 208, 235. 
Beaconsfield, on criticism, 277. 
Beecher, on laughter and tears, 447. 
Beethoven, 113. 

" Before an audience," criticised, 84. 
Bell, on imitation, 309. 
Bernhardt, 122; compared to Terry, 

135 ; elocution of, 379. 
Betterton, upon applause, 448. 
Bible reading, 140. 
"Bobolink" by Bryant, illustrates 

representative vocal expression, 

126-27. 



454 



Index. 



Body, must be trained, 209, 237, 250, 
356; relation to the mind, 246; 
preparation of, 353; must be 
studied, 363. 

Booth, Edwin, 361. 

Breathing, cause of faults, 222; rela- 
tion to mental action, 223 ; too 
seldom, 223 

Brooks, Dr. Phillips, definition of 
preaching, 398. 

Browning, ideas about art, 75, 77; 
applied to delivery, 114; growth 
of art, 146; relation of Chris- 
tian to Greek art, 146; not yet 
criticised, 274-5; insight of, 
390; an ideal, 436-7. 

Browning, Mrs., an idealism, 106. 

Burke differs from Demosthenes, 
147-48. 

Carlyle on education, 389; reading 
develops thinking, 406. 

Carrier pigeon, instinct of, 184. 

Character, relation to art, 68-70, 
aim of education, 233 ; revealed 
by expression, 405 ; study of, 
aided by expression, 405. 

Characterization, assimilation not 
tricks, 132. 

Chart of man, Delsarte's, 340. 

Children, dramatic, 304. 

Chironomia, Austin's, 311. 

Christ on Calvary, painting of, 

43- 

Christian art, 108; manifestive, 145, 
146. 

Churchill, J. W., arrangement of pro- 
grams, 446. 

Cicero on definition, 20 ; style no 
model for modern times, 158. 

Class, atmosphere of, 412. 

Classic art, 144, 145. 

Clergymen, minor inflections of, 219, 
220; sore throat of, 222, 257; 
development of, 435-6. 

Closson, W. B.,his engravings origi- 
nal, 138-9. 

Coleridge on method, 230. 

Comedy and farce, 445. 

Comenius, lessons from, 375; law 

of, 375- 
Consciousness, in expression, 93-5; 
planes, 94, 189, 202; its sphere 
must not be extended too far, 
190; action, 193; to their needs, 



285 ; conscious and unconscious 
union of, 432, 441. 

Consistency in nature, 176; in art r 
179. 

Constriction in breathing, 224. 

Conventionality in art, 181. 

Co-operation needed, 421. 

Copies in art unsatisfactory, 138. 

Co-operation needed in expression 
372. 

Co-ordination of powers in expres- 
sion, 375. 

Coquelin, 8^- , 

Creative faculties must be trained, 
402-404. 

Criticism, founded upon insight, 263; 
mistakes of, 264-5; true an< i 
false, 265, 269, 271, 276; not 
judicial, 265; defined, 268; an 
art, 272-3; dramatic, 273 ; prov- 
ince of, 276; effects of, 276-7; 
an aid, 277-8 ; difficulties, 279, 
282; in expression, 282; faults 
of, 284 ; awakens sense of need, 
285 ; needed in public reading, 
449. 

Culture, relation to expression, 415, 
426-7 ; necessary to teacher of 
expression, 417 

Daisy, Wordsworth's, 125. 

Dangers in school, 422. 

Darwin on emotion and expression, 
247. 

David Copperfield, spirit of, how de- 
stroyed, 445. 

Defects of voice, artistic according 
to Murdoch, 315. 

Definition, importance of, 19, 20. 

Deliberative action, relation to spon- 
taneous, 200; cannot make an 
artist, 227. 

Delivery, importance of, 20; not 
physical, 37-8, 213, 365; neglect 
of, 48; function of, 77; repre- 
sentative and manifestive, 141; 
ancient compared with modern, 
145, 160; and mind, 232; de- 
pendent on imagination, 244-5; 
improved directly and indirectly, 
234-5; needs, 286; traced to 
mind, 401 ; difficulties, in devel- 
oping, 434- 

Delsarte, Francois, advance made 
by, 335> 35 2 > 35 8 > 360, 362; 



Index. 



455 



system of, 335, 360; published 
nothing, 335-7 ; and Steele 
Mackaye, 336 ; on universe, 
338-9; chart of man, 339-40* 
correspondence in, 339 ; defini- 
tions, 339, 341 ; system criti- 
cised, 346, 360; and Rush, 350; 
mechanical, 351 ; on expression, 

356. 

Delsartism not true work of Del- 
sarte, 337. 

Demosthenes differs from Burke, 
147; his art, 427; broke rules 
in greatest oration, 264. 

Development of delivery, 98 ; of ex- 
pression, 203, 213; of mental 
action, 213, 235; necessary to 
unity, 227 ; possibility of, 233. 

Diagnosis in expression, 216, 279; 
vocal, 280; kinds of, 409-10. 

Dickens, arrangements of reading, 
42 ; principles of his art, 445. 

Diffusion of emotion, 247. 

Drama and novel, 42. 

Dramatic instinct, early shown, 119; 
not wholly representative, 128, 
130; not imitation, 304; imagin- 
ative element, 397 ; necessary 
to all kinds of success, 404-5 ; 
needed in every profession, 405 ; 
must be developed, 405. 

Dramatic art, to unfold, 120. 

Ear, bad, 38. 

Earnestness, 192-3. 

Ecole de Declamation, 302. 

Education degrades delivery, how, 
142; applies to conscious and 
unconscious, 204, 206; of the 
orator, 207; true, 233; of feel- 
ing, 234-5; of delivery, direct 
and indirect, 234-5; modern, 
261 ; laws must be studied, 273 ; 
function of, in expression, 387, 
407-9; degradation of, 388; 
needs of, 388. 

Elementals in expression, 358. 

Elocution considered as a represent- 
ative art, 123, 380; imitative, 
123-4; how degraded, 123, 143; 
conventional, 182; often teaches 
weakness, 253-4; rules of, 260 ; 
mechanical, 310; nature of, 317 ; 
criticised by Whately, 326, 331 ; 
inadequate, 363-4 ; one-sided, 



365; an amusement, 379; gov- 
erned by rules, 381 ; looks at 
outside, 382-3; faults of voice, 
382 ; neglects the unconscious, 
383 ; neglects training, 383. 

Eloquence, 431 ; relation to uncon- 
sciousness, 200. 

Emerson on education, 391. 

Emile of Rousseau, 373. 

Emotion, nature of, 86-7 ; kinds of, 
87-8; spontaneous, 189; lack 
of control over, 221-2; proper 
and improper action on the 
voice, 240-1 ; diffusion of, 243, 
247 ; not possible in mechanical 
elocution, 318; noble, requires 
pure tone, 382; stimulated, 382; 
necessary to actors, 430. 

Encouragement must be given to 
expression, 378. 

English aided by expression, 376; 
mystery of, 376; developed by 
expression, 400 ; study of faults, 
400; as ordinarily studied, 413. 

English oratory compared with 
French, 158. 

Engraving, the best, a manifestive 
element, 138-9. 

Enneking, J. J., on drawing as reveal- 
ing character, 72-3. 

Examples needed, 362. 

Examinations not always applicable 
to expressive training, 411. 

Exercises, perversion of Delsarte's, 
356. 

Expedients, not training, 364. 

Experience, revelation of the prob- 
lem of delivery, 66-7 ; only 
manifested, 141 ; needs encour- 
agement, 379. 

Expression defined, 19, 36; difficulty 
of developing, 23 ; found in 
words, 26; use of mind in, 28; 
not exhibition, 29, 33; faults, 
33; kinds, 50, 63; in art, 99, 
122; use of the term, 119; in 
nature, 167, 183; universal, 1 7 1 ; 
must be spontaneous, 176, 185; 
contrast to impression, 189; can 
be developed, an; capable of 
education, 233; hindrances to, 
2 37~8'i transparent, 246; and 
nature, 368, 374; relation to 
education, 373; governed by 
principles, 38 1 ; and literature, 



456 



Index. 



378; manifestive, 380; contrast 
to expression, 380, 383; neces- 
sary to development, 388 ; best 
aid in artistic training, 393 ; tests 
growth, 394 ; an aid in educa- 
tion, 406 ; as a test, 407 ; proper 
sphere, 407 ; office of a teacher 
Of, 408, 424; needs a special 
teacher, 409-10; a department 
of education, 409 ; different from 
other studies, 411-12; needed 
by teachers, 425-7 ; by speakers, 
432; by actors, 441-3; by read- 
ers, 448, 450. 

Expressive training, test of harmony, 
406. 

Extemporaneous, all expression, 40; 
modern oratory more than an- 
cient, 151; speaking, advantage 
in developing proper mental 
action, 232. 



Faculties, Delsarte's analysis, 343 ; 
must be developed to improve 
style, 400-1. 

Faults of expression, 33 ; causes, 
46 ; separate from personality, 
65; cause no assimilation, 66; 
cause lack of training, 175; not 
corrected directly, 189, 190, 
224, 229; displacement of con- 
science, 194-5; mental causes, 
216, 225; need radical treat- 
ment, 224-5, 3 20 5 a physical 
occasion, 224; unconscious, 241 ; 
not distinguished, 251 ; how- 
acquired, 255; how prevented, 
256; correction of, 282, 284 ; not 
aim of criticism, 283 ; necessary, 
286, 364. 

Fsemig can be trained, 234. 

Fielding and Garrick, 257. 

Figures, how to develop, 402, 404. 

Focus of the mind, 190. 

Form, sense of, developed, 402. 

French oratory compared with Eng- 
lish, 158. 

Freedom in art, 181; not license, 
180; in nature, 179, 180. 

Froebel on education, 96, 388, 394 ; 
lesson from, 375. 

Fundamentals, 169; illustrated, 353; 
need chief attention, 319, 321, 
332. 



Garrick, his simplicity, 157—8. 

Gesture, mechanical school of, 311. 

Giotto, 18 r. 

Goethe, 26; criticised by Words- 
worth, 173; contrasted with 
Shakespeare, 227. 

Gotterdammerung, representative 
and manifestive elements, 115, 
117. 

Grace, 34 ; depends upon center, 
244. 

Greek art, how different from Chris- 
tian, 108; more representative 
than Christian, 145; dramatists 
compared to Shakespeare, 404; 
standards not now possible, 155; 
method of treating rhetoric, 

403, 4i3- 
Growth, 287 ; aided by expression, 

416. 
Gurney, division of the arts, 106. 
Guttural quality, 315. 
Gymnastics make people stiff, 250. 



Habit, effect upon nervous system, 
241 ; unconscious effect of, 241. 

Hale, Dr. E. E., on speakers, 431. 

Hamlet, as read by Henry Irving, 
442. 

Harmony, thought and emotion, 
208-9; °f m an's powers neces- 
sary to art, 394 ; tested by 
expressive training, 406, '414; 
how developed, 406. 

Hardness in voice a mental cause, 
217. 

Hegel, on music, 80, 108; develop- 
ment of art, 144. 

Henry, Patrick, 148. 

Hill, Aaron, 267. 

Histrionic effect on other arts, 121, 
122; function of, 369, 377. 

Historical method, 292-299. 

History of expression, 144, 162; aid 
of, 292, 300 ; of elocution diffi- 
cult, 293-8 ; methods, 297-8. 

Hunt, Holman, too representative, 
111-12. 

Hunt, W. M., hesitated to criticise, 
268. 

Huxley on education, 392. 

Hypothesis, art not founded on, 168; . 
necessary in scientific method, 
371 ; in scientific method, 371-2. 



Index. 



4S7 



Ideas, 230; must dominate the 
speaker, 433. 

Idealism not realism, 106. 

Imagination, function of in expres- 
sion, 88, 92 ; highest requisite, 90 ; 
necessary to spontaneity, 191 ; 
creates ideas, 230 ; developed by 
lyrics, 231; can be developed, 
234 ; best trained by expression, 
397 ; must be developed for 
style, 402-4 ; imagination devel- 
oped by expression, 412. 

Imitation, modulation, 123-4; vio- 
lates spontaneity, 176; and 
extension, 191 ; arguments for, 
301-3; weakness, 303-9; not 
dramatic instinct, 304; in art, 
304-6 ; Ruskin on, 305-6 ; evils 
of, 307 ; truth of, 361 ; action of 
mind needed, 398 ; of self, 448. 

Impulse awakened by imagination, 
191 ; school, 326, 334. 

Indirect work on expression good, 
229. 

Influence, conscious and uncon- 
scious, 435 ; Of art, 436. 

Innis, George, on instinct, 198. 

Insight necessary, 263 ; into others 
developed by expression, 404. 

Instinct used as a key in delivery, 
67; necessary to all art, 172; 
necessary to the artist, 198; 
relation to knowledge, 198 ; 
shows expression has a mental 
cause, 226; methodic, 232. 

Interpretive power of expression, 
376-7. 

Interpretation, literature needs, 378. 

Irving, Henry, his Louis XI., 78, 
306; brings educated men to 
theater, 79 ; on emotion in 
expression, 85-6; manifestive 
artist, 134; Dr. Primrose, 134; 
advanced his art, 294; reading 
of Hamlet, 442. 

Jebb on Demosthenes and Burke, 

147. 
Jevons on danger of prejudice, 347 ; 

on method, 371. 
Jockey club, hissed Wagner, 443. 

Kant on nature of emotion, 189. 
Keats, 266. 



Kendall, Mrs., 135. 

Knowledge not sole aim of educa- 
tion, 233; degrees of assimila- 
tion, 395; must be assimilated, 
43°- 

Languages, natural differ from arti- 
ficial, 53-7 ; verbal, 57 ; vocal, 
53—5 ; pantomime, 55-6; com- 
plex, central impulses must 
be awakened, 227 ; must be 
brought into harmony, 254-5. 

Lamb, criticism of Wordsworth, 
274. 

Lawyer, need of expression, 262. 

Literature, effect of best, 286 ; study 
of, should be difficult, 286 ; and 
expression, 376-8, study of, 399 ; 
and art, 402 ; develops harmony, 
406 ; contact with needed, 433. 

Life, how manifested in expression, 
197 ; an art, 436. 

Lifeless, 197. 

Logical action of the mind must be 
developed, 232. 

Logical method developed, 379. 

Lyrics, why they should be studied, 
231 ; few in readers, 377. 

Macaulay, 406. 

Macbeth, influence of, 436. 

Mackaye, 43 ; pupil of Delsarte, 
336; master of Delsarte's exer- 
cises, 356. 

Macready on teaching feeling, 234. 

Magnetism, 430. 

Man, the whole must be trained, 
365; deliberative, 184-5; spon- 
taneous, 185. 

Mannerism, 220-1. 

Manifestation ignored in elocution, 
370; in art, 103-4; differs from 
representation, 104-5 > m ex ~ 
pression greatest, no. 

Marks, evils of, in elocution, 324; 
criticised by Whately, 329. 

Means in expression must be trained, 
207-8. 

Mechanical expression, peculiarities, 
191 ; differs from spontaneous, 
193 ; elocutionists object to 
training, 212. 

Mechanical actions not seen in 
perfect expression, 245. 



458 



Index. 



Mechanical teachers object to train- 
ing, 249. 

Mechanical elocution, false rules, 
281. 

Mechanical school of elocution, 210, 

325- 

Mechanical elocution, evils of, 329, 
330; illustrated, 381. 

Memory, philosophic, developed, 398. 

Melodies, unnatural, cause of, 221. 

Mental action and expression, devel- 
opment of, 213, 235; must be 
improved to secure unity, 226 ; 
needed in training, 247-8. 

Merkle, Dr., on vocal struggle, 256. 

Methods in delivery not defined, 
170; evil, often produce good 
results, 299 ; bad results of, 300 ; 
better than system, 348. 

Mind causes expression, 39; must 
be focused, an idea, 319; the 
center of expression, 227 ; must 
be directly trained for expres- 
sion, 229; studied in expres- 
sion, 381 ; not studied in elo- 
cution, 381 ; study of aided by 
expression, 406; modes of 
studying, 406. 

Ministerial " tone ", 283-4. 

Minor inflections, 244, 258 ; cause, 
219. 

Misconceptions, 38; of expression, 

387. 

Monotony, cause of, 221. 

Monologue, 137, 376. 

Moult on, R. G., on criticism, his 
readings, 272-3. 

Monroe, L. B., system before he 
knew of Delsarte, 338; explana- 
tion of Delsarte on the mind, 
343 ; on reading, 446. 

Murdock, James E., 296; on Rush, 
313-15; weakness of, 314; on 
scenery, 442. 

Musing not thinking, 229. 

Music, 80. 

Musician, 174; training needed, 238 

253- 

Natural languages peculiarly mani- 
festive, 143; natural not habit- 
ual, 244; natural methods in, 
396 ; needs not faults, 283. 

Naturalness, elements, 167, 185-8; 
imitates, 194. 



Nature foundation of all art, modes 
of action, 167, 183; processes 
complex, 167; modes of, 167, 
183; must be studied, 168; not 
built, 171; confounded with 
habit, 244 ; original, 266 ; before 
all, 295; not governed by rule, 
367 ; nature and expression, 
368-9; to be trusted, 374; 
relation to expression, 374; 
nature, study of, developed, 406. 

Needs in delivery, 364. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 371-2. 

Nicholas Nickleby, 445. 

Norton, Professor C. E., on lyrics, 
231. 

Normal and abnormal, 241. 

Normal as a standard, 355. 

Normal actions must be studied, 

383- 
Novel, how different from a poem, 
109; suggests different charac- 
ters to different readers, 11 2-1 3. 

Objections to developing expression, 
204, 212. 

Orator, mind must be focused on 
ideas, 175; spontaneity of, 185; 
conscious of voice only when 
wrong, 245. 

Orators, how to study, 232. 

Oratory, decline of, 59; cannot die, 
121 ; manifestive, 136-7 ; chang- 
ed with other arts, 145; ancient 
and modern compared, 145, 
150; modern an advance, 150; 
abandon in, 193-4; importance 
of, 427-8; not developed by 
modern education or elocution, 
427-8 ; not developed, 428 ; not 
supplanted, 428; needs all lan- 
guages, 43 " 1 - 

Organism, development of, 237, 251 ; 
knowledge of, 249; must grow, 
not be built, 239; must be 
strengthened, 256; not a ma- 
chine, 287. 

Original nature, always, 266. 

Originality, 281. 

Painting reveals character, 72-3; 
a manifestive element, 1 1 1 ; in- 
fluence of, 436. 

Painter interprets, 393. 

Pantomime and speech, 358; and 



Index. 



459 



voice, 357 ; belongs to whole 
body, 357 ; Delsarte's method, 
354; ignored in English oratory, 
1 58 ; strongest is manif estive, 
129; transparent, 245. 

Paradox of acting, 82, 84. 

Pasca, Madame, pupil of Delsarte, 

336- 

Pater, Walter, Appreciations, 267; 
on style, 400-1. 

Pepy's criticisms, 265. 

Periodicals, need of, 372. 

Personality must act in sponta- 
neity, 176; each different, 281; 
relation to faults of expression, 
64, 81. 

Pestalozzi, lessons from, 375. 

Peter the Great, on preaching, 
246. 

Philosophic memory, 230, 407. 

Physical training, relation to expres- 
sion, 415; not greatest need of 
teachers, 426. 

Physiology of bodily exercise, 248. 

Physician, need of training, 410. 

Phonograph, 296. 

Photography loses the manifestive 
element, 139. 

Phrasing, 259, 260. 

Pitch confounded with hard quali- 
ties, 218. 

Plea for spoken language, 295. 

Poise, Delsarte upon, 354. 

Pope, 266. 

Position developed by poise, 354. 

Possession must determine mani- 
festation, 229. 

Poetry a manifestive element, 109, 
1 10 ; how degraded in bad vocal 
expression, 130-1. 

Practice, 260; effect of hap-hazard, 
371; needed, 258; neglected, 
261; necessary, 254. 

Presentative not same as manifest- 
ive, 106. 

Principle and rule, 368. 

Problem of delivery not met, 363. 

Programme music, 113. 

Protagoras, on harmony, 375. 

Public reading, Irving and Terry, 
137, 442; compared to acting, 
441-4; suggestive, 444; needs 
criticism, 449 ; highest dramatic 
opportunities, 450. 

Pure tone, use of, 317, 382-3. 



Quintilian no longer a standard, 
149-50, 154-6. 

Readers, best not good teachers, 
282; excuses of for reading poor 
literature, 446. 

Reading, public, importance of, 234 \ 
more manifestive than acting, 
136; readings, home literature, 

377- 

Realism and idealism, 106. 

Recitation makes voices hard, 218. 

Regnier, M., 302 ; criticism of Del- 
sarte, 352. 

Representative art, exaggerated, 
107 ; elocution regarded, 370. 

Representation as a form of expres- 
sion, 102-3 ; danger of exag- 
geration, 125; in Mercutio, 128. 

Reproductive art, 138, 141, 378. 

Rhetoric, mechanical methods of 
studying, 403 ; relation to expres- 
sion, 400. 

Rhythm, 223-4. 

Roman art, nature of, 152-3. 

Romantic art, 144-5. 

Rousseau, 205-6; nature right, yjy- 
374; emphasis of nature, 36. 

Rule never made art, 181. 

Rules, evils of those of Murdock, 
317; examples of bad, 322. 

Rush, Dr. James, cause of mistakes, 
258; on stress, 312; on quality, 
312; advanced mechanical elo- 
cution, 312-13; on emotions, 
313; effect of, 313; condemned 
by actors, 317-18 ; violates laws 
of education, 375. 

Ruskin, John, art as a language, 26, 
27 ; on imitation, 305. 

Russell, William, 375; father of 
American elocution, yf]. 

Salvini, why he does not act in 
English, 176. 

Samson, 302. 

Science must be studied in expres- 
sion, 370; of training, 248; of 
training needed, 251. 

Scientific training not like expres- 
sion, 411; does not develop 
speakers, 433. 

Scientists, why not speakers, 38. 

School, special, needed, 421-2; with 



460 



Index. 



endowment, 423-4 ; imitative, 
300-9; impulsive, 326, 334. 

Schools of art, 68 ; an advantage, 
299 ; in all arts, 278 ; of elocu- 
tion,299; old and new in acting, 
152. 

Schiller, art derived from play, 118. 

Schopenhauer on music, 108. 

Schumann, 104. 

Scott, Walter, influences of novels, 
437 ; Kenilworth, 443. 

Scripture reading, 140. 

Sculpture, early developed, 107 ; 
highest classic art, 145. 

Self-consciousness corrected by ex- 
pressive training, 196, 405. 

Self-knowledge difficult, 420. 

Semitonic melody weak, 314. 

Sentimental school of elocution, 
333. 

" Shadow of the cross," in. 

Shakespeare, art reveals his charac- 
ter, 68, 7 1 ; periods of his art, 
69 ; illustrates relation of emo- 
tion to imagination, 90; com- 
pared with other dramatists, 
148-9 ; broke rules, 181-2 ; con- 
trasted with Goethe, 228 ; broke 
unities, 264 ; humble, 265 ; to 
players, 267 ; difficulties vanish 
with expression, 376; greatness 
of, 390 ; moral standard, 436-7 ; 
not much scenery, 443 ; con- 
trasts abnormal with normal, 
445-7-8. 

Shelley, his character and art, 71-2. 

Shepherd's Chief Mourner, 26-7. 

Sheppard, will in speaking, 84. 88. 

Sheridan, 296, 310; criticized by 
Whately, 326 ; outlined system 
of education, 375; on Greek 
accents, 157. 

" Shock of the glottis " given up, 

325- 
Shylock as given by elocutionists 

only aggregated, 132. 
Siegfried, 116. 
Signs of emotion not basis of 

expression, 319. 
Sing-song, causes of, 221. 
Simplicity developed by expression, 

405- 
Skill must be secured by training, 

253- 
Song, not free as speech, 175. 



Sophocles, 364. 

Sorrow, right and wrong mode of 

expressing, 253. 
Soul, complexity of, corresponds 

with languages, 162. 
Speaker or orator, and writer, 39; 

how forgets himself, 194, 418; 

needs training, 262, 432 ; needs 

assimilation, 400. 
Speakers, faults of, causes, 221 ; 

importance of training, 427, 

43 1 - 

Speaking, how developed, 232 ; 
problem of, 429-31 ; extempora- 
neous needed, 433. 

Speech and song contrasted, 175. 

Specialty, elocution a, 409-10. 

Speculative school, 335, 360. 

Spencer, origin of art, 118. 

Spontaneous distinguished from me- 
chanical action, 193; from cen- 
ter, 199; the whole being, 200. 

Spontaneity in expression, 176, 178; 
tested, 177; man and animal, 
184, 188 ; common views of, 186 ; 
two views, 198-9; can be devel- 
oped, 204-5-6; not absence of 
deliberation, 210; relation to 
training, 250; in art, 287. 

Stage art, how advanced, 294; evil 
tendencies of, 440. 

Standard, how necessary, 300. 

Standards, must change 1 54-5. 

Steele, Joshua, 296. 

Students, why voices hard, 218. 

Style, improved by expression, 401 ; 
not recognized in delivery, 170; 
Pater on, 400-1. 

Swallowing, not by will, 187. 

Swedenborg, 338. 

Sympathy, relation to expression, 

397- 
System, Delsarte's, 347 ; not meth- 
od, 348 ; often substituted for 
nature, 366. 

Taste developed by expression, 
397-8, 405. 

Teacher aided by expression, 398, 
406, 425, 427. 

Teacher of expression, common 
faults, 217; words few, 283 ; 
must study art, 369 ; office of, 
408-424 ; needs special training, 
410-12.; function in a college, 



Index. 



461 



413; qualifications of, 417, 421 ; 
must be educated, 418; training 
of, 420-22. 

Technical training, needs must be 
secured, 209; necessary, 210; 
must be combined with mental, 
252, 258, 262; needed by teach- 
ers of expression, 409. 

Technique in every art, 208 ; differ- 
ent from music, 257 ; founda- 
tion, 259; not by rule, 260; not 
sufficient, 364. 

Temperament, effect of on expres- 
sion, 308. 

Terry, Ellen, in Olivia, 134; a man- 
ifestive artist, 134; contrasted 
with Bernhardt, 135. 

Texture of muscles should cause 
color of voice, 358. 

Theatre Francais, 303. 

Theatric art, how aided, 443. 

Thinking and musing, 91 ; contrast- 
ed with musing, 229 ; developed, 

395- 

Thought, without emotion, causes 
hard tones, 217 ; relation to 
emotion, 394, 432. 

Throat, sore, cause of, 222. 

Tone must be pure for noble emo- 
tion, 382. 

Training, lack of, not distinguished, 
170; necessary, 209, 237, 239; 
of voice, body and mind neces- 
sary for spontaneity, 213; kinds, 
239; restores nature, 241 ; ob- 
ject of, 245; takes time, 245; 
a mental action, 247-8 ; science 
of, needed, 249; misconceptions, 
250; for skill, 253 j preliminary 
and technical, 253; must en- 
large, 255; must precede execu- 
tion, 258; lessons of, 294-5; 
overlooked by Whately, 333 ; 
not expedients, 383 ; aims of, 
387 ; special, needed by teach- 
ers of expression, 409—10. 

Tradition, how far followed, 292, 295. 

Truth and fact, 60 ; in all schools, 
361-2. 

Unconscious element in all expres- 
sion, 190; relation to art, 200; 
actions can be educated, 233. 

Unconsciousness in art, 195. 



Unity, law of art, 67 ; in nature, 
178; in expression, 179; only 
secured by developing mental 
. action, 226. 

Unities broken by Shakespeare, 264. 

Unnaturalness, cause of, among 
speakers, 221. 

Use of expression in education, 387. 

Vandenhoff, George, 332. 

Verbal expression, representative, 

143- 

Verbal language, symbolic, 97. 

Verbal memory, evil effect of in ex- 
pression, 398. 

Vocal expression, union of represent- 
ative and manifestive elements, 
127-8. 

Voice must be trained, 209, 237, 
243, 366,. 432; faults, a mental 
cause, 217; difference between 
reciting and playing, 218-19; 
misuse of illustrated, 240; right 
action, 243; range must be used, 
255 ; bad use of, unconscious, 
285; evil effects of on imitation, 
307 ; relation to pantomime, 
357; must be investigated, 383; 
prejudice against training, 388; 
effect of misuse of upon teach- 
ers, 425-6. 

Voice, American, hard, 426; effect 
upon children, 426; reveals cul- 
ture of a teacher, 426-7. 

Volition, 184-5; see wiU- 

Wagner shows union of representa- 
tion and manifestation, 114, 
118 ; hissed, 443. 

Walker, 296, 310; dictionary of, 375, 

Weakness must be distinguished 
from strength, 210. 

Weariness in speaking, 223-4. 

Whately, influence of, 326, 3.28 ; crit- 
icism of elocution, 326, 331 ; no 
remedy, 331; not answered, 332; 
effect of his teaching, 334. 

Will, function of, in expression, 19, 
189, 191-2-3, 227, 242, 395; 
mystic, 188, 198. 

Words, a history, 380. 

Wordsworth on Goethe, 173 ; insight 
of, 390. 

Writing must be preceded by speak- 
ing, 404. 



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